Moving Forward
by Insanity-Red
Summary: AU After the war, Fem!Harry is left with no friends, no family and the body of an eight-year old. She has a second chance at life and spends three years in America, where she discovers tennis. Now, she's off to Japan to enjoy her new life to the fullest.
1. Chapter 1

Moving Forward

Soft, wispy, white stretched on as far as the eye could see. A blanket of clouds tinted with warm colors by the summer sun, and in an inverted position underneath the blue sky. The view looked like a sea of cotton, and the tops of the clouds were swirled upwards into phantasmal shapes.

A small girl with chin-length, messy black hair was seeing all this as she gazed out one of the airplane windows. She seemed to be around the age of eleven, and had a short, skinny frame even for that age. The girl formerly known as Heather Potter was currently flying towards the opposite side of the planet, to her new life in Japan as Kitamori Akira.

Akira , and shifted in the tiny airplane seat, trying to find a more comfortable position. At least being in this smaller body meant that she had more room. At the end of the last battle in the war against Lord Voldemort, the remaining Death Eaters were either surrendering, as they knew they had no chance without the Dark Lord, or running away towards the gates of Hogwarts, hoping to get a chance to apparate away.

Then there were those who struggled. They were the more loyal and spiteful ones, and started to fire of hexes and curses from their wands with great abandon, hoping to take down some members of the winning side.

Her only friends having died in the battle, Akira had been walking rapidly towards the gates underneath her invisibility cloak, also looking for a chance to apparate away unseen, and maybe get away from the Wizarding world completely, when she had been hit with a curse in her back.

From what she had researched after that, the curse was designed to de-age the victim in a very painful fashion, and keep on shrinking them until there was nothing left. It was a nasty experience to feel your bones cracking and your muscles shrinking, and then to see the world from a much shorter level. Apparently, being under the cloak, had effected the curse, and it had thankfully not killed her.

It had just made her look like an eight-year old. Going on nine, that is.

Now, she was cunning. She had had to be to survive the war with the psycho Dark Lord after her head. So when she learned her body had turned into a child's, she had found many pros to a situation where many would see only cons.

First and foremost, she was a child again. In body at least. She now had a chance to live a childhood and into her teenage years without having near-death experiences yearly. Secondly, since no one had known she had been hexed in the first place, she was free to skip out on the Wizarding World. That meant no fan-mail to the Vanquisher of the Dark Lord, or hate-mail from those who thought she'd become the next great evil of the magical community. Most of all, it meant no one trying to manipulate her (like a certain twinkle-eyed old codger) and she could live her new life as she pleased. Thirdly, it meant that she could catch up on her non-magical education that she had only time to study briefly during her years at Hogwarts, what with the attempts on her life and trying to keep her grades up in the magical areas of study. Plus it also gave her the pleasure of being the smartest nine-year old she had ever known.

So, she had gone to America and spent three years doing just that. She had poured herself into her studies. Hermione would be proud of her, she thought sometimes. Akira genuinely enjoyed learning though. She had found an aptitude for muggle subjects that she had never really had for the magical. Sure she had been very powerful and whatnot, but she had had to work very hard for every ounce of ability. With the non-magical subjects, it just seemed to come naturally.

The things she had gotten into the most however, had been chemistry and tennis. Chemistry had been a bit of surprise, as she had been horrible at Potions. Then again, the Potions Master, Severus Snape, had had a grudge against her the first day she walked into the classroom because he had hated her father and didn't know how to let go of his problems. So without him looming over her shoulder and criticizing her constantly, she had found a great joy in the subject. Learning how different chemical had effected each other and how to counter the effects had been very enjoyable for her. Especially the ones that exploded. She had always had a great love of explosions after she had hit Bellatrix Lestrange, the murderer of her godfather, with a Blasting Curse and completely blew away her lower body and watched as she bled to death.

Tennis, on the other hand, had been the closest thing to Quidditch, a wizarding sport, in America. Sure, she had known about the sport years ago; but when she had seen some teens playing street tennis, she had been entranced. The speed, power, reflexes, and stamina needed for the sport was so fascinating to her. After that she had started to learn about the sport and trained constantly. She had even played in a few minor tournaments, but never the ones covered by the media. After Rita Skeeter, she had disliked reporters with a passion.

Her body now looked nothing like it had when she was eight the first time around. Instead of the slightly starved looking, tiny frame, she had lean muscle all over from running marathons and hitting tennis balls every day. Her skin, instead of being covered with a fine dusting of bruises, had a light tan from spending time outdoors. Her almond-shaped, emerald eyes, instead of being dull and hopeless, shone with a pleased, yet calculating glint.

Tennis was also the main reason she was on the airplane. She was on a flight towards Tokyo, Japan. She had always been interested in Japan after learning many languages, because Japanese had been her favorite one to learn. So now she was going to Japan, not only because she was interested in the culture, but because it had a great reputation in the tennis world.

Suddenly, there was a clicking noise on the overhead speaker. The stewardess' fake-happy voice rang out a second later. "Excuse me everyone! We will be landing shortly in the Tokyo Airport, so please return to your seats, buckle up and turn of all electrical devices. Thank you for flying with this airline, and have a great day!" she chirped.

Akira rolled her eyes slightly behind her thick, black bangs and buckled her seat belt, before putting away her electronic chess game. She had picked it up in the last airport, as it reminded her of Ron. She then sat up straighter in her seat, and looked out the window, watching as they went down through the clouds, and seeing the city from a birds eye view.

Soon, they were ushered off the plane in a jostling, fussing group. Akira looked around her, reading the directional signs and studying how the people interacted. Soon, though she had found the right sign, so she hitched her carry-on bag up higher on her shoulder and immediately made her way to the baggage claim section of the airport.

She walked to the section where her luggage should be, only to find an airport attendant running after a fluffy Himalayan cat while a boy with a white cap and a tennis bag over his shoulder watched with amusement. Akira tilted her head slightly as the cat streaked in her direction, the airport employee chasing after it almost manically.

The cat jumped, and on reflex, she caught it. It looked up at her with its brown face, before it started to purr. The employee gawked in disbelief, and the boy started to walk towards her, but was stopped by someone yelling for him.

"Ryoma! Do you have Karupin yet? We should probably get the rest of our stuff." It was a rather scruffy looking man who said that, gesturing to the baggage claim. He was talking in English, she noticed, despite the fact that they were in Japan and he seemed to be Japanese himself. He also looked vaguely familiar.

"I'm coming, oyaji." The boy, Ryoma, said in a bored voice, also in English except the Japanese term. "Karupin wanted to stretch his legs."

The scruffy man, apparently the boys father, blinked a little, before noticing the black-haired girl holding his sons cat.

"Ah! Who are you? And why are you holding my sons cat?!" He cried, still in English though he didn't know that she knew the language. She noticed the boy rolling his eyes slightly, indicating that it was common behavior for the man.

She debated on whether to answer or not, but decided it really didn't matter because there was no guarantee that they would ever see each other again.

"My name is Kitamori Akira. I'm holding this cat because it jumped into my arms, and if I didn't catch it, it would probably have dug its claws into my skin, trying to stay in position." she said in a lazy voice.

The man finally seemed to notice that they were speaking in English because of the fact that she fluently spoke another language even with her young age.

"You speak English?" he asked curiously. It wasn't everyday that you met a bilingual little girl. She gave him a 'what-do-you-think?' look.

"Yes. I speak English. It would be hard not to considering I grew up mostly in America." Well, the second time around anyway.

The man ignored the dry tone of her young voice, and started to talk again. "Oh really! We're from America too! We just came over to Japan so little Ryoma here could go to my old Middle School and join the tennis club!"

Ryoma looked disgruntled at being called little. "Can we get going oyaji? I'd like to unpack and get used to the new house. Plus mom should be waiting for us."

Reminded that she had, in fact come to the baggage claim for a reason, Akira looked down at the Himalayan cat happily nested in her arms and walked to the Ryoma kid and handed it to him. His cat-like eyes widened slightly in surprise, but she ignored him for the moment.

Soon, she had spotted her suitcase and her tennis bag coming towards her on the revolving carousel. A quick jerk of her arm and she had them in hand. She slung the sports bag over the shoulder that wasn't occupied by her carry-on bag, and popped out the handle of her suitcase so that she could roll it along behind her.

She noticed the two she had just met briefly also grabbing their luggage in her peripheral vision, but she didn't notice the cat anywhere. That is, until she felt something soft winding between her legs. She looked downwards and saw Karupin rubbing his fluffy head against her leg.

She blinked in surprise. Usually people avoided her; especially during her second childhood. She was the creepy girl who knew everything to the kids, and the teachers were unnerved by her intelligence. Then again, she was never sure if it applied to animals.

"Karupin! Come on kitty-cat!" the scruffy man was back again, trying to coax the cat back over to him and his son. She still couldn't tell why that guy seemed so familiar.

Akira gave a small sigh, before scooping up the long-haired cat. She walked over to them and held the cat out. Karupin purred and tried to nuzzle her hand, but she handed him to his owner.

"Karupin seems to like you, Kitamori." Ryoma said, looking at her with hidden curiosity.

She tilted her head slightly, about to answer, but then a tag caught her eye. On the tag was written 'Ryoma Echizen' in English.

'Echizen?' she thought. 'Where have I heard that name- ah! Nanjiro Echizen… The Samurai.' she looked at the scruffy man and imagined him with long hair in a topknot and a headband. 'Ah. So that's why he looks familiar.'

"I have no idea why. Most people don't like me, so I have no idea why a cat would." she said bluntly, getting over the revelation that the scruffy man was a famous tennis player rather quickly. He was also a pervert, if the magazine with a lingerie-clad woman on the front peeking out of his carry-on bag was any indication.

There was an awkward silence after her comment, at least of Nanjiroh's part. Ryoma just smirked, and Akira didn't really realize that she said anything odd. She hadn't really had any human interaction in the past three years, so… yeah.

"So… you play tennis?" Nanjiroh said awkwardly, noting the racket-shaped bag slung over her shoulder.

"Yes." she said. "For almost four years now."

Nanjiroh looked slightly surprised. That would mean she would have started at around age eight.

"How good are you?" he asked almost excitedly. "Maybe you and Ryoma could play a few games."

Akira glanced at her watch, before looking back up at them. "My mother never told me to not talk to strangers, but I hear that it's good common sense." she said dryly.

Nanjiroh looked at her in surprise for a moment, before giving a sheepish smile. "Well, I'm Echizen Nanjiroh, and this is my son Ryoma."

Ryoma nodded in greeting and Akira reciprocated. "Do you even want to play a game?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

Ryoma shrugged, absently petting a squirming Karupin. Akira peeked into his mind and interpreted that as 'not really'. She really loved legilimency when it wasn't being used on her.

"Well then, since I have no reason to stay here, I have things to do. Perhaps I'll meet you again. Goodbye." and so Akira walked away, navigating her way through the crowd of people.

Soon, she had reached the exit, and called a taxi. As she waited for the driver to pull up, she noticed that it wasn't very cold out considering it was January. Perhaps they had gotten their nasty weather done with early in Japan. She got in the back,, shoving her suitcase into the seat next to her. She wrinkled her nose slightly at the scent of cigarette smoke, before telling the driver her destination.

Watching the scenery go by, she wondered which school she should go to. The schools she was considering were Rikkai Daigaku, Seishun Gakuen and Hyotei Gakuen. She wasn't sure which one would be the best.

Sure, Rikkaidai (a nickname for Rikkai Daigaku) had won the Kantou championship for the past fifteen years, but that could change at any time. Hyotei had less students than

Rikkaidai, and only used regulars when it mattered. Seigaku (shortened from Seishun Gakuen) happened to be the school that her new acquaintance, Echizen Nanjiroh went to.

Her eyes widened slightly behind her bangs. Didn't Nanjiroh say that his son, Ryoma, was going to his old middle school?

'Well, that decides it. I'm sure Ryoma is a good tennis player, growing up with a father like that. All the excitement will be happening at Seigaku!' she thought with amusement.

She reached over to her carry-on bag, and stuck her hand in, searching for her Seigaku brochure. She soon found it, and pulled it out, looking for its' address, but the taxi had stopped at her new house. With a hint of a smile on her face, she tucked in in her pocket for further perusal at a later date.

Akira carefully opened the door on her side of the car, pulling out her luggage behind her. Then she reached into her pocket for a wad of bills, and peeled off the correct amount and handed it to her cab driver.

She turned towards her house and started the trek up the small stairway towards the front door. The house was nice, a bit on the large side and surrounded by cherry trees, soon to be blossoming, and other foliage. It was one out of around a dozen such homes in same area, mostly occupied by rich families. The only difference was the fact that there were some magical enhancements to her house and a tennis court out back. Though, she did think that one of the others had some sort of shrine in the back yard.

When she got to the front door, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a gold key, courtesy of the goblins, and opened the door. She was about to go in, but noticed another taxi coming up the street out of the corner of her eye. She watched its course curiously, as it looked like it was slowing down, only to have her eyes widen in surprise when she saw a scruffy-looking man with brown hair and a kid with a white cap get out of the back seat of the car.

'I'm neighbors with the Echizens?' she thought in surprise as two women ran out the front door to greet them. There was a small pang in her heart as she saw them all hugging happily, or embarassedly on Ryoma's part, but she shook it off. 'This will be fun.'


	2. Chapter 2

Whoa. The day after I posted the first chapter for this story, I looked in my inbox on Yahoo, and there was like 30 people putting this story in their favorites or on alert. Plus I got +100 viewers! Thank you all, especially the people who reviewed.

Disclaimer: By the way, I, in no way shape or form own Harry Potter or the Prince of Tennis. I just like messing with the characters. ^-^

Warnings: Gender-bending, obviously. Mentions of extreme violence, death and all that morbid stuff. Rating may go to T. May have mild swearing later.

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Moving Forward Chapter 2

Akira sighed happily as warm water sprayed from the showerhead and trickled down her back. Showers had always relaxed her, calming her thoughts and soothing her physical scars. They had not disappeared when her body had been de-aged. She was glad to not have had a nightmare - relived a memory - last night.

She fingered her favorite scar, lost in thought. It was an odd thing to be playing favorites with, but then again, she had never been normal, even by the magical world's standards. Still, it was an impressive scar. It was a thick, silvery line stretching from her right shoulder blade and curving slightly around her arm to end at the inside of wrist. She was rather proud of it, admiring the irony of the thing- it looked like a tattoo that someone might get when they were trying to look cool, but it was really the result of torture. She had a large assortment of various other scars, but this was definitely her favorite. Especially since she had killed the Death Eater who made it.

Soon though, she had to shut off the shower, stepping into the chilly-in-comparison air. She grabbed a fluffy green towel and wrapped it around herself with her slightly pruny fingers. Looking into the mirror situated above the marble sink, she contemplated the changes wrought to her character.

Her muscles were tensed, ready for any kind of action, her body naturally going into a state of wariness. Her eyes, previously hidden by thick, round glasses, would dart around a room or area when she walked in, taking in escape routes and weak points. Even her style of tennis had been effected by her past experiences, taking in the blind spots of her opponents, sometime copying tactics.

Analyzing had been her main occupation during the war. See the target, find the weaknesses, hammer away relentlessly until they drop of fatigue or death. War had brought out her Slytherin side that the Sorting Hat had detected that first day she had come to Hogwarts, and it was here to stay. She had had to hammer out all of her own weaknesses as well, getting her eyes fixed, relentlessly training in spell-work and even her own body, so that she would be able to dodge and roll with the best of them. Anything to take down the enemy, even a small study in psychological attacks. She had become quite proficient in Legilimency during the war. It had saved her countless times during the various skirmishes spread across Europe. It was almost instinctual now, knowing what the opponent would do before they even thought about it.

Shaking her head out of reminiscing, she padded over to the still unpacked suitcase that she had carelessly tossed on the floor in her bedroom. She had been so tired yesterday, that she hadn't taken a shower before going to bed like she usually did, and had fallen asleep the moment her head hit the pillows.

She knelt down on the plush, forest green carpet and lightly tapped the padlock on the edge, inserting some of her magic as a sort of 'key' as she did so. It popped open, and she lifted the top of the suitcase and pulled out what she was looking for.

It was a mahogany wardrobe, shrunken to the size of her palm so as to fit inside the suitcase with her other belongings. She stood, walked lightly over to a corner in her mostly barren room and set down the mini piece of furniture. She took a few steps bag, and then waved her hand, sending out magic to enlarge the wardrobe to its proper size.

She ruffled her short hair slightly while contemplating what to wear. She hadn't bothered getting wizarding garb, and she didn't really have any fashion sense. The wardrobe pretty much consisted only of t-shirts, jeans, shorts, sweatpants and a few sweaters. Sure, she had a few more dressy clothes, but she never really wore them. She had no skirts or dresses at all because they were impractical, and everything had to be practical to her.

After pulling on some underclothes from the drawers in the sides of the wardrobe, she pulled out a green t-shirt and some black sweatpants. Over the top of her shirt, she pulled on a zip-up sweater, as the weather had been rather nippy when she had checked before her shower. They were pretty loose fitting, because she figured that the bigger they were, the longer she'd be able to wear them.

She looked lazily in the mirror again to check her appearance, though she probably wouldn't do anything if she looked bad. Short, messy, jet-black hair. Check. Skinny, yet somehow strong frame? Check. Baggy clothes? Check. Actually, now that she thought of it, she didn't really look like a girl. She had always had a conspicuous lack of curves, especially when compared to some of the girls at Hogwarts, and her features were strong for a girl.

Akira shrugged; she didn't really care if she looked like a boy. Boys' clothing was more comfortable anyway. She looked at the clock for a moment or two, before comprehending the time was already nine o' clock in the morning.

She wondered for a second where her shoes were, before remembering the were probably by the bed somewhere. So she looked all the way around, and finally found the black and silver tennis shoes underneath part of the green comforter that had slipped off the bed during the night. She plopped herself on her bed, pulling on the nice, crisp, white pair of crew cut socks, before pulling the shoes on over them.

She stood up without tying them, holding one foot in the air to tie the shoe on it and again with the other foot, hopping to the door as se did so. Before leaving the room, she grabbed a green sweatband off the floor and put it around her forehead, over her lightning bolt scar, to keep sweat from dripping down her face while she exercised. She walked into the kitchen and grabbed her carry-on bag off the island counter. She stuck her hand inside and wiggled it around until she felt a small towel and her water bottle.

Smiling slightly, she also grabbed a cereal bar, as she wasn't that hungry, and her keys from where she had tossed them on the kitchen table, preparing to go out for a run. It would be nice to explore the area around her new home, plus she might happen across Seigaku and be able to register.

She looked around, making sure that she didn't forget anything, before she noticed her tennis bag sitting innocently next to the door. With a small grin, she grabbed it and headed out the door, making sure to lock it behind her. Maybe she'd find a street court and scout out the general skill level of the area.

Once outside the door, she stuffed her towel and water bottle into the spare pockets of her tennis bag, before slinging the bag itself around her shoulders, situating it comfortably on her back. Green eyes observed everything they had missed last night because of the lack of light as she made her way down the stairs, three steps at a time. She briefly turned her head to the Echizen's house, thoughts running through her mind, before snapping her attention back to her exercise as she hit the sidewalk at a run. The crisp, fresh air served to wake her up even more, but she was soon at a more comfortable temerature from her exercising.

She jogged down the sidewalk for a while, munching on her small not-breakfast and noting all the things she passed and cataloguing them in her mind. Soon, she had reached a more urban area, and had to stop for a red light as the cars went by. There weren't that many people willing to go outside and exercise around this time of year, even if it wasn't that cold. Perhaps it was some sort of human reflex; maybe the need to lounge around and digest everything they had consumed during Christmas? Isn't that more like lions though?

She shook her head to get rid of her aimless musings, and took the time to throw away the wrapper from her cereal bar and grab her water bottle from her tennis bag to take a sip or two as she looked around. There were a couple of restaurants, a few stores and what looked to be some sort of sports facility.

Soon, the light turned green, and she headed off in a random direction, hoping to explore a bit more before trying to find anything specifically. Soon she came across a underground train station, and she stopped in to check the stops out of curiosity. She was happy to find a stop less than a block from her house, so if she wanted a quick way to get there, then she now had one.

Smiling slightly, she headed towards the northern exit, intent on finishing her ten mile jog and then finding somewhere to play tennis. After jogging straight for a bit, she found herself at the 'Kakinokizaka Tennis Gardens'. It seemed there was to be a tournament there in the last week of March; coincidentally the week before school started.

She looked at all the names of the people entering, noting their ages, until she came to a familiar name. Her eyes widened slightly before rolling in amusement.

Echizen Ryoma, age 12. Playing in the Sixteen-year-old division.

She shook her head slightly, before continuing her jog, hoping to find somewhere nice to eat when she finished her run. Thirty minutes or so later, she was winding down her marathon, starting to walk instead of run. She sat on a bench conveniently parked on the sidewalk, took her tennis bag off of her bag and set it on the bench beside her. She zipped open the pocket with her towel and water bottle, grabbing the towel and putting it around her neck to prevent more sweat dripping down her back. It wouldn't be very comfortable, especially if it got chilled by the cool breeze.

She closed her eyes for a moment, leaning back on the bench and enjoying the late morning sun shining down on her face. After a while though, her stomach's rumbling and her itchy forehead goaded her into sitting back up. She reached up below the sweatband on her forehead to itch the irritated skin underneath and looked around to see if there was a restaurant in the vicinity.

Her bright, green eyes lit up when she spotted a little sushi shop across the street. The sign said Kawamura Sushi, and it looked nice enough. So, without further ado, Akira stood up and grabbed her tennis bag, before jogging quickly across the street when she saw that no cars were coming.

A little bell jingled as she opened the door to the small restaurant. She blinked slightly at the sudden change in light as she walked into the shop, but walked forward anyway. She stepped up to the register counter, tapping it to get the attention of the drowsing man sitting behind it.

The man at the register, who she assumed was Kawamura, looked up in surprise and gave a warm smile. "Welcome to Kawamura Sushi. What would you like to order?" he asked in a jovial tone.

She gave a lazy smile in return. "I'd like some temaki sushi with wasabi. (A/N: Temaki is spicy tuna. By the way, did you know that sushi doesn't actually mean 'raw fish'? It refers to the type of rice used in the dish. 'vinegar-ed rice.' Wasabi is Japanese horseradish. Very strong flavor, and it practically burns out the sinuses.) Do you, by any chance, have Philadelphia rolls?" she asked thoughtfully. Philadelphia roll included smoked salmon, cucumber and cream cheese. She had liked them a lot when she had sampled some in America.

"Ah, yes! We do have them." the man said.

Akira's smile widened into a happy one. "Then I'd like to have an order of that too. Can I also have some jasmine tea?"

"Of course. Will that be all?" he asked after writing down the order on a small pad of paper.

She answered in the affirmative and he told her the price to have ready when he got back with the food. "Please seat yourself anywhere." he said, before going back to the kitchens.

She sat at a small table in the corner of the little sushi shop. She set her tennis bag on the chair next to her and pulled the semi-itchy sweatband off of her forehead, revealing her lightning bolt scar for a second until her long bangs covered it once again. She ruffled her hair slightly, feeling that it had already dried. She wasn't sweating anymore thankfully, so she also took the towel from around her neck and put it back into her tennis bag.

She looked around the shop curiously, looking for something to occupy her attention. When nothing proved to interesting, Akira tilted her head to the side in contemplation, wondering what exactly she should do during the rest of the day. She still had a whole summer before school started and she didn't particularly want to spend it doing nothing.

She sat in silence for a moment, before giving up on trying to think of something for now and wished she would have brought her electronic chess game with her. Without something to occupy her attention, her thoughts started to drift back into the realm of memories.

_FLASHBACK START_

_Heather sighed quietly as the rest of the DA, Dumbledore's Army, members bickered rather loudly. They were supposed to be discussing where Voldemort's remaining Horcrux could be hidden._

_The diary, she had destroyed in her second year, stabbing it with the fang of the basilisk she had just killed with the sword of Godric Gryffindor._

_The ring, Dumbledore had taken care of, though the curse on it had eventually taken his life. The black stone that had been set in the ring had been given to her as Dumbledore had stated in his will. She wasn't exactly sure what was so special about it, but she had a hunch._

_The locket had eventually been found when Ron had tripped up Mundungus Fletcher. The rotten thief had had it mixed n with the rest of the things he had stolen from Grimmauld Place, which happened to be HER property. Hermione had not wanted to ruin the priceless artifact and had devised a spell to get the piece of Voldemort's soul out without damaging the object. The spell was also used for the other Hogwarts Founder's objects._

_The diadem, previously belonging to Rowena Ravenclaw herself, had been found in the Room of Requirement, the very room they were in now. The Room was a life-saver, changing into whatever you needed out of it. The tiara had been in a room along with piles upon piles of things that people had wanted to hide._

_Helga Hufflepuff's cup had been tricky to get. Heather, Ron and Hermione had been forced to sneak into Gringotts, the Wizarding Bank run by gobllins, and break into Bellatrix Lestrange's vault. They had barely got out with their lives, escaping on the back of a dragon that had previously guarded the vaults. They had managed to apparate away before the beast had thrown them off its back._

_The problem was the last Horcrux, Nagini, Voldemort's twenty-foot long pet cobra. They had no idea how they were going to her rid of the snake because it was almost always with Voldemort or high ranking Death Eaters._

_"People!" Heather finally yelled. They all settled down, waiting for their leader to say something. "Now, we all know what the last Horcrux is, correct?" she said like she was talking to babies._

_They all nodded._

_"Nagini is almost always at Voldemort's side, correct?" she asked them another question sweetly._

_They all nodded again, wondering where exactly she was going with this line of questioning._

_"Well, you seem to all have forgotten the fact that even if we destroy all the Horcruxes, Voldemort ill still be alive in his own snaky body. Since Nagini is always with Voldemort, we'll just have to wait until Voldemort gets arrogant and comes out of his little fortress. Then we'll take them both out." she said with a tone of finality._

_There were nods all over the room, some rather reluctant._

_"I suggest you focus on fighting the war for now and leave the scavenger hunt for later."_

_FLASHBACK END_

Akira was jolted out of her memory as her order of sushi was set on the table in front of her, along with her favorite jasmine tea.

She smiled up at Kawamura, hiding her frown from the memory, and paid for the food.

After that, the DA had been a bit unruly. A few of them had went against her, and tried to find ways into Voldemort's fortress. They had all died slow, torturous deaths, courtesy of Voldemort's dungeons. There had been nothing for her to do but keep training like crazy, hoping to be ready for the final confrontation.

Shaking her head mentally, she turned her attention to her food. She dipped a temaki roll into the wasabi on the edge of her plate and bit into it, contently munching on the overly spicy sushi.

Fifteen minutes later she had a small, lazy smile on her face. The sushi was excellent, as was the tea. She would definitely come back to Kawamura Sushi at some point.

She thanked Kawamura again, before heading out the door. Once out the door, she squinted slightly as the sun shone brightly. She turned in the direction opposite from where she came from and saw eight guys walking down the sidewalk towards her. She moved to the side so as not to bump into them and watched with a raised eyebrow as the walked into the sushi shop she had just vacated.

Her green eyes widened slightly as she noticed they all wore blue and white jerseys proclaiming 'Seigaku' on the backs. She tilted her head slightly as she tried to recall what they looked like, but gave up after only a few features. She shrugged mentally, before continuing in the direction they had just come from.

After about fifteen minutes, she found herself looking at a large school where a couple of sports teams were practicing over the summer. She smiled slightly as she passed the sign that said 'Seishun Gakuen' and continued to the main building entrance, hoping to find out where to register herself as a student.


	3. Chapter 3

Okay! Here's the third chapter! After the second chapter, my brother kept noting grammar mistakes in my story when I made him read it, so then I got him back by making him proof-read this chapter for me! So Kudos to the Grammar Nazi! Hopefully this chapter won't have as many mistakes.

Thank you all for reading my story. I was very surprised to see just how many hit this story got. I especially thank those who reviewed; for those who asked questions, they will be answered over the course of the story, so keep on reading!

Disclaimer: I definitely do not own the Prince of Tennis manga, nor the Harry Potter novels. If I did, I probably wouldn't be writing fanfiction for them, now would I?

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Moving Forward chapter 3

Ishikawa Hiroyuki looked at the small girl in front of him. At first, he had mistaken her for a boy, but when she had checked the female box on her register form, he almost flushed in embarrassment. It really wasn't that hard to mistake Kitamori Akira for a boy though. She didn't seem to have an ounce of feminine pride.

"Ishikawa-sensei?" the headmaster was startled out of his contemplation of androgynous students when Akira called his name.

"Ah. Yes, Kitamori-kun?" he said, and almost smacked himself for giving her a suffix that was used mostly for boys.

Akira, oblivious to his inner turmoil, continued with her query. "Do you think I could wear the boys' uniform in stead of the girls'?"

When she noticed the headmaster giving her a strange look, she added, "I think that boys' clothing is more comfortable. Plus, the girls' uniform is way too short." she finished bluntly.

'It'll be even harder to tell her gender that way though!' he thought for a moment, before deciding he didn't care; and that it would be funny to see peoples' reactions if they did find out she was, in fact, female.

"All right. If it makes you more comfortable, there's no problem with wearing the boys' uniform. It's never really specified that you have to wear your own gender's uniform anyway." he said gleefully.

Wondering why her new school's headmaster seemed a bit bi-polar, she walked out of his office, intending to explore the school. She walked along the hallways, noting the burgundy flooring and the pale blue walls. She walked up the stairs to the second floors, and found a hallway where one of the walls was made entirely of big windows.

She looked out the windows as she passed and saw a few team practicing sports. She lost interest rather quickly though, as the only sport she was really interested in was tennis, and continued walking through the empty school halls.

'Well, I thought it was empty…' she thought as she saw a girl walking quietly through the halls, carrying a large bag.

The girl was probably shy, as she had an uncertain posture and walk. The most notable feature about her was her long, burgundy braids; they almost reached her hips. She looked about to be her current body age. Eleven or twelve, that is.

Akira quietly followed her, curious as to why a girl, who looked to not be old enough to even be a student of the school yet, was doing walking the deserted hallways in the middle of the summer. The girl seemed to be a bit clumsy, occasionally tripping over her own feet. She also seemed to have poor directional abilities, often staying at an intersection in the halls for a few minutes before remembering which way she was supposed to go.

Akira cocked her head to the side slightly, it seemed to be becoming a habit she was forming when she was contemplating new information, as she saw the timid girl stop in front of an office. The burgundy-haired girl's eyes lit up happily as she knocked on the door.

Akira squinted a bit, focusing her eyes on the nameplate on the wall next to the door.

'Ryuzaki Sumire? Isn't she the adult advisor for the tennis club regulars?' she thought curiously, looking on as the door opened and an older-looking woman with gray hair and wearing a pink tracksuit opened the door.

"Ah Sakuno! You're a bit late dear. The regulars already left for Kawamura Sushi to get lunch." Ryuzaki said.

The girl, Sakuno looked down in shame. "I'm sorry obaa-san. I got lost on the way here, and then I couldn't find your office when I got to the school!" she wailed.

Akira raised an eyebrow. 'So she's the tennis coach's granddaughter? Interesting.'

"Oh Sakuno!" Ryuzaki said in fond exasperation. "What are we going to do with all those bento now?"

'That must be what she has in that bag she's carrying.' Akira thought accurately. 'Well, I'm bored now. Better go home.' and with that last though, she turned around and quietly walked back the same exact route she came.

As she walked out the main entrance, she decided, on a whim, to visit the tennis courts to see what they were like. After a bit of aimless wandering, she saw the large chain-link fences designed to keep stray tennis balls away from the audience. She looked around closely, noting the size of everything and the conditions they were in.

Akira nodded in satisfaction. Seigaku was a good choice for her. The tennis club wasn't so big, only having thirty or so members, as opposed to the fifty-something of Rikkaidai. Plus the school's population was smaller compared to Rikkaidai as well, only having around fourteen-hundred students instead of Rikkaidai's twenty-six-hundred.

She wasn't even sure that she would even try to join the regulars or not. If she did, she would gain the attention of all the schools in surrounding areas, being a freshman and a girl. She would be the first girl to be a school regular in fifty years if she did achieve that status. Nowadays, the girls in the school only acted like preppy cheerleaders and went all 'fan girl mode' over the boys filling the regular spots. None of them were even close to being determined enough to train as much as would be needed to be in a regular's position.

Then again, there were some pros if she joined. Despite being in the spotlight, a hated but common place for her to be, she would actually be challenged a little by being on a team. Maybe even make some friends. Even if she didn't, she was pretty sure she'd have all kinds of fun.

She shrugged to herself, turning to go back to her house. She'd figure out what to do when the time came to decide.. School hadn't even started yet, and she'd rather dwell on other things during the summer.

Akira scratched her cheek as she wondered what to do next. She didn't really have anything that she absolutely needed to do, as she'd already dealt with her schooling issues. She definitely didn't need a job, as the money from the Potter vault had yet to be even close to running out.

She was still thinking over what to do next when she was at the school's entrance. Her sharp eyes noticed eight boys walking in past the gate and she raised an eyebrow. They were all chatting comfortably except three of them, who were either: ignoring the rest (the guy with a stern expression and round glasses) scribbling something down on a notebook (the guy with thick, rectangular glasses and short, spiky hair) or glaring at nothing (the dude with the bandana).

The ones who were chatting all looked amiable enough, she supposed. The one with the odd magenta hair looked a little hyper, and was hanging all over the guy with weird-shaped spiky black hair. The other black-haired one was looking at them like a mother would to a messy child - fond exasperation, with a hint of worry. The brunettes were talking quietly as well. One of them was tall, and seemed a little shy, also having a vague resemblance to the man at the sushi shop. The other brunette though, made her pay attention a bit more. He seemed to have a permanent smile with his eyes shut lightly; she could tell he had skill though, walking around with little to no sight was extraordinary for a normal middle school student.

'I wonder… how much do they practice? As a team, I'm sure they're diligent… I wonder how much they practice individually, though?' Her eyes were glued to the backs of the regulars, watching them contemplatively. 'Today they seem to be working quite a bit. Then again, I suppose it isn't that much. They were at the sushi place around 12:30, right? Probably after a morning practice,' she thought to herself as she walked out of the school grounds, turning in the direction of her house. 'Then coming back to practice a bit more after lunch isn't that much. It all depends on how long they stay now, I suppose. I'm glad that they're still practicing in the cillier weather.'

Walking down the sidewalk, Akira smiled abruptly, absently ruffling her hair. 'I know what they look like now.'

When she had passed them earlier at the sushi shop, she had been irked when she couldn't recall what they looked like. She never had liked not knowing things, and it had been heightened by the years in which Dumbledore had deemed her 'too young' to know facts important to her survival.

Now though, she was content with having faces to put with the names of the best tennis players of the school she would be going to, come April.

Her small smile still on her face, Akira walked down the sidewalk, enjoying the walk back to her house. Her walk became lethargic as the steady rhythm of her tennis bag bumping against her back lulled her into a lazy state. Her green eyes slid shut in pleasure as the sun's warmth hit her face, not bothering to look where she was going. Navigating without sight had become a need-to-know ability during the war; one of the Death Eaters' favorite curses was one that could blind someone, mostly on the Light side, for at least an hour.

She stopped abruptly on the sidewalk as a very familiar sound filled her ears. The sound of tennis balls hitting a racket. Her eyes opened as she looked for the source. A small smirk played about her lips as she walked in the direction of the noise. She had just found something to do.

She grinned slightly as she saw the street courts. They were rather well kept for being public. No graffiti or broken lights anywhere. She supposed that the troublemakers were too afraid of rousing the wrath of the large crowd of tennis players in the area.

There were several people playing on the courts, and a few more just watching their friends or scouting for a good match. She walked over to a free bench and sat, watching the nearest tennis match with a shrewd eye.

She sat there for an hour, not moving an inch, her sharp eyes zeroing in on blind spots of the tennis players. She noted the ways they moved, the strength of their hits and everything in between, mentally judging the threat they would pose in a match against herself. There would prbably be more people playing when it got a bit warmer.

Akira was shaken out of her calculations when the sun shone directly into her eyes. She screwed them shut for a moment, bringing her hand up to cover the upper part of her face. Her eyes soon widened in surprise though. She took a quick glance at her watch, seeing the time to already be three o' clock, before sighing slightly and standing from her seat.

'I'd better go home now. I need to stop procrastinating and conjure some furniture in case someone, however unlikely it may be, comes to visit.' she thought, not looking forward to her future session of interior designing.

She took the quickest route to her house, hoping to get it over with as soon as possible. Soon, she was climbing up the long set of steps, covered in cherry blossoms, that led to her front door. She dug around in her pocket for a moment, before grabbing her key and unlocking the door, making sure to lock it behind her out of war-bred paranoia.

She walked further into the house, and looked around the first room she came across with a barely suppressed wince as she took in the complete lack of anything inside. She reluctantly started to gather her magic in her hands (having forgone the use of a wand during the war), ready to change that.

* * *

After working steadily for two hours or so, the house wasn't so empty anymore. She had conjured dark colored furniture with unique, older styles, giving the house a gothic feel that reminded her of the ancestral home of her deceased godfather. She hadn't really liked it before the war, but afterwards she had gained an appreciation for the more morbid things, including décor. Still, her style was only subtly dark, having some lighter pieces to counteract it. She didn't have any decapitated heads of old family servants on the walls, thankfully.

Akira was rather satisfied with how her house had turned out in the end, and was currently lounging lazily on one of the loveseats she had just conjured. It had taken a lot of magic to completely finish with the furnishing of her house, and now she had nothing to do except look forward to her next day. She just drifting off into a catnap, which was a very common thing to do after expending higher than average levels of magic, when there was a knocking sound coming from the front door.

Akira was immediately rid of all traces of sleepiness, on high alert with the unexpected presence of another person. She quickly got up from her laying position, and warily crept towards the front door. She wandlessly cast a charm that would allow her to see through the door to check if the person on the other side was a threat.

She was, however, confused to see a vaguely familiar woman standing in front of her door with a pleasant expression on her face.

Akira unlocked the door and cautiously opened it, wondering what a stranger would want with her.

"Yes?" she said guardedly, poking her head out of the doorway. "Is there something you need?"

The woman smiled warmly. "Yes! I'm Echizen Rinko, your neighbor. I'd heard that someone new had moved into this house, so I came to see. I was wondering if you and your family would like to come have dinner with mine so we could get to know each other." she had a nice, tenor voice, with a motherly tone.

Akira blinked at her owlishly, before backing away slightly and fully opening the door. "I'm Kitamori Akira. I don't have a family. I live here on my own. I'm emancipated." she stated bluntly brushing her bangs out of her eyes absentmindedly as she eyed the woman in front of her. She seemed sincere enough, it was just in her nature to be suspicious of any and everyone.

Rinko's eyes widened in shock and pity. Akira had to hide the frown that wanted to appear on her face. She strongly disliked pity. Especially over the family issue. She'd gotten over it a long time ago.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know!" the woman exclaimed. At least she wasn't saying something like 'I'm sorry for your loss'.

Rinko covered her mouth with her hands for a moment before saying, "Would you still like to come over? It would be nice to have someone besides family at the dinner table."

Akira was genuinely at a loss. She'd never been invited to anything by a friendly person with no ulterior motives. In the Wizarding world, everyone had tried to use her for her power - magical and political. The only ones that she could trust not to were Hermione, the Weasley family (except, perhaps Percy), Remus Lupin, and Sirius, and they were all dead now.

After calmly contemplating what to do for a moment or two, she decided on an answer.

She turned to the patiently waiting woman on her doorstep. "All right. I'll accept your invitation."

Rinko's smile stretched from ear to ear. "That's great! Would it be too much trouble for you to come over now? You could get to know my family while I make dinner."

Akira shrugged slightly, and suddenly found herself being pulled along by the arm towards the Echizen's house. She stared at the woman in contemplation as she allowed herself to be dragged down the sidewalk. Apparently her new neighbor was stronger than she looked; or just unreasonably determined.

She was pulled through the doorway to the Echizen's home and promptly sat on a cushioned rocking chair in the corner of the living room. She looked around with curiosity and caution. The Echizen household had a light, airy feel to the house that would put most people at ease. From what she could tell, the house was very open, only have the minimum amount of walls; she could see into the kitchen from her position and could probably have a conversation with Rinko without raising her voice.

"You just make yourself comfortable while I cook! I believe that, Nanako, my niece, is in the backyard watching my son play tennis with my husband." Rinko said cheerily, already taking ingredients from their storage places and preparing to cook them.

Akira's ears perked at the mention of tennis, especially when she heard that the legendary 'Samurai' was playing. It would be a good chance to analyze his skills and maybe get some ideas on how to play better by watching.

"Rinko-san, I think I'd like to watch them play tennis. Thank you for inviting me over." she said politely. "Could you please tell me the way to the backyard?" she finished.

"Of course Akira-kun! Just go through the living room, turn left and go straight. That should get you to the door to the back." Rinko said cheerily as she stirred some batter.

Akira gave a nod of her head, before following the directions she had been given. She was about to open the sliding wood door, when she felt something soft near her feet. She looked down cautiously, and saw a fluffy, chocolate point Himalayan cat winding around her ankles again.

"Ah. You're Karupin right?" she said, not bothered at all that she was talking to an animal. The cat meowed up at her in what seemed to be confirmation. She blinked slightly, perhaps this cat was part kneazle. The magical catlike creatures were very intelligent and it was possible for them to crossbreed with common housecats.

"Would you like to go outside with me?" she asked. Karupin looked up at her as if to say, 'Of course, silly!'. Akira picked up the cat, who started to purr contently, slid the wooden door open, and walked through to the backyard. It was covered in cherry blossom trees, and she was sure they would be beautiful when they blossomed in the spring. There was also a long flight of stairs leading upwards to a shrine. It was very peaceful.

She looked around, hearing the 'pok' noise of a tennis ball being hit, but not seeing where they were playing. She closed her eyes to pinpoint the sound, absently stroking Karupin's coat as she did so. She turned in the direction of the noise and opened her eyes, slightly surprised to see the shrine in front of her.

She walked up the flight of steps to the shrine, careful to move more gracefully than usual so as not to jostle the feline nestled in her arms. Once at the top, she looked around and saw a crude tennis court made out of lines in the hard-packed earth. She sat down on the protruding stone foundation of the shrine next to the other spectator, a girl whom she assumed to be Nanako, and quietly watched the match with a calculating eye.

Echizen Ryoma. He was a very skilled player for his age. He had speed, strength and accuracy. From what little she saw of his personality at the airport, she could tell he was slightly cocky and rather indifferent about most things. This seemed to be one of the things he wasn't apathetic about, and he displayed a fierce determination that made him all the better a player.

Echizen Nanjiroh definitely lived up to his reputation. He was effortlessly returning all of Ryoma's rather skilled shots, and reading a porn magazine as he did so. After watching for a while, she also realized he wasn't really moving, standing in one spot unless the ball was aimed at the edges of his side of the court.

She was knocked out of her contemplation by a voice saying, "Excuse me, are you our neighbor that Rinko-nee-san said that she was going to invite?"

Akira blinked at the girl sitting beside her, absently petting Karupin who was still sitting on her lap. "Aa. I'm Kitamori Akira. I live a small distance down the street."

The girl gave a warm smile, making Akira contemplate why the Echizen women seemed to be so kind to strangers. "I'm Nanako, Ryoma-kun's cousin. He's the boy playing tennis over there."

Akira decided not to mention the fact that they had already met unless it came up. She decided to just nod in return to Nanako's statement. Karupin started to bat at her hands, apparently wanting to play. Akira's eyes softened slightly at the cat's cuteness, before leaning over to the side and plucking a long, thin weed out of the ground and starting to tease him with it.

Nanako wondered about their new neighbor. He seemed to be anti-social, yet he had agreed to come to dinner at their house. He didn't really seem to be particularly caring or cheerful, but was playing with her cousin's cat with a softer expression on his face. She eventually decided not to contemplate on their new neighbor's personality until she knew him a little better.

It seemed that the game between father and son had finished, because Akira's attention was abruptly pulled from Karupin to the loud voice that currently yelling.

"Hey! You're that kid from the airport!" Akira looked up to see Nanjiroh pointing a finger at her, his magazine hanging limply in his other hand. Ryoma was sweating and sitting down on the ground with a bottle of water, but was watching the commotion with concealed interest. Nanako was watching in confusion.

"It's not polite to point." she deadpanned, her emerald eyes peering through her long bangs at him, before going back to playing with Karupin, much to the kitty's delight.

Nanjiroh spluttered for a moment before seeming to regain some composure. "Why are you at my house?" he asked almost accusatorially.

With a small sigh, she looked up from the Himalayan cat and put her attention into the conversation, if it could be called that. "Your wife invited me to dinner. I happen to be your neighbor."

Nanjiroh contemplated that for a moment, before seeming to completely change moods. "Does that mean you'll play a tennis match with Ryoma?"

"Does he even want to play?" she said with a raised eyebrow.

Nanjiroh opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted by his wife yelling, "Dinner is ready!" from inside the house.

They stood there for a moment, before Karupin took the initiative and hopping from Akira's lap and trotting towards the house. Akira stood up and followed him, realizing it would be impolite to keep Rinko-san waiting. The others also walked to the house, all a bit curious about their dinner guest.


	4. Chapter 4

Moving Forward chapter 4

It was quiet in the Echizen household; thankfully it wasn't an awkward silence, it was because everyone was enjoying their dinner and it wasn't polite to speak with your mouth full. On the table were many different dishes, coming from either Japan or the Western world.

The quiet was broken when Nanako spoke up, "This is really good Rinko-nee-san. I'm glad that you made Western dishes as well as Japanese ones," Nanako finished cheerfully.

Akira mentally agreed. The Western food set on the table had been a pleasant surprise, as she had gained a taste for the dishes whilst in America. She had also enjoyed the yakitori and jasmine-perfumed rice that was set out. (A/N: Yakitori literally means 'cooked bird'. it is usually chicken skewered on thin, wooden stick. The jasmine-perfumed rice is pretty self-explanatory.)

Rinko smiled happily at her niece. "Thank you Nanako-chan. I'm glad that you enjoyed it," she beamed, before suddenly gaining a worried look. "Oh dear. Did you like the Western food Akira-kun? I probably should have made all Japanese food. I'm sorry if you didn't like it," she rambled a little in embarrassment.

Akira felt the need to correct her; it wouldn't be polite to leave the impression that she disliked her hostess's meal. Then again, she usually didn't care about being polite. She inwardly shrugged. Perhaps Rinko was an exception.

"No Rinko-san. It was very good. I gained a liking for Western food after spending most of my childhood in America." It was a small white lie, but no one needed to know about her time in England.

Rinko perked up in excitement. "Really? You lived in America? So did we!" She rambled on for a bit about America after that, before she was interrupted by her son.

"Where's the rest of your family?" Ryoma asked rather bluntly.

Rinko looked a little bit mortified, already knowing the answer to that question.

"They're dead." Akira answered indifferently, before going back to her meal, not noticing the awkward silence that settled over the table.

Nanjiroh, in an attempt to dissipate the uneasy hush, blurted, "So, what school are you going to in the fall?"

Akira looked up from her meal to answer. "Seishun Gakuen." she answered, wondering how they would react.

"Oh really! Ryoma's going to attend there too! It's Nanjiroh's old middle school, you know. What grade are you going into Akira-kun? I mean, you look almost young enough to be still in elementary school!" she exclaimed the last part and as she didn't intend to insult her, Akira let the 'elementary school' comment slide.

"I'm going to be a freshman. I'm turning thirteen on July thirty-first." she answered, fiddling slightly with her silverware. Usually, magical children at age twelve would be soon entering their second year at their schools; thankfully, her magic was still recognized as an adult's by whatever instrument was used to write the Hogwarts acceptance letters. She would not have liked to deny the letter and hence draw attention to herself, as refusing was a rare occurrence. She never would have accepted, because she would be recognized as the missing Heather Potter despite her altered age.

Her mind was drawn back to the present as Rinko gave another smile. "Oh that's good. That means Ryoma will be going to his new school with a friend! Aren't you happy Ryoma?" she directed the last part towards her son.

Ryoma just turned his head away, muttering, "Che."

While Rinko pouted slightly at her son's indifference, Nanako decided to join the conversation. "Is it hard to live alone Akira-san? I'm sure it must be for a boy to live on his own," she said with curiosity.

Akira blinked slightly at her, processing the statement before answering. "Actually, I'm a girl."

The Echizen's reactions were amusing to say the least. Nanako flushed in embarrassment, while Nanjiroh gaped. Ryoma looked odd with his catlike eyes bulged out. Rinko had the most unusual reaction though.

"But you make such a pretty boy!" she exclaimed in shock.

Akira's lips twitched, almost smiling. They were an amusing family. The dynamics of their relationships were interesting to watch.

Nanako coughed slightly to hide her chuckle at her aunt's statement, but continued talking to their guest, wanting to get to know her better.

"Will you tell us a bit about yourself Akira-san? I must admit, I am a bit curious about you." she said almost sheepishly.

Akira tilted her head to the side, wondering what to say. She decided to go with the basics.

"Hah… you already know my age. My favorite colors are black and green. My favorite fruit is an orange. My favorite animal is either a snake or a cat." she didn't really know what to say next, but Rinko helped.

"Do you have any hobbies?" she asked curiously.

Akira sat up a little straighter to talk about her interests. "I like chemistry a lot." she gained an odd smile as she stated her first hobby. She really did like chemistry, watching the reactions of the different ingredients; but her favorite thing to do was to see if the concoctions would explode. "I have also played tennis for around three years now." she finished.

"Oh really?" Rinko asked in delight. "That's wonderful! Ryoma has been sulking about having no one to play tennis with except for his dad." She ignored her son's glare and continued talking. "With you here, maybe you two can play against each other and get better."

Akira had an odd sense of foreboding as Rinko's eyes gained a strange glint.

"Plus we can play dress-up! I can fit you into a bunch of cute little outfits, and give you a cute hairstyle and maybe even show you how to put on make-up!" Rinko exclaimed excitedly.

Ryoma was looking at his mother like she had grown another head. Nanako was giving her new neighbor a sympathetic look, having gone through something similar with her aunt. Nanjiroh winced slightly as his wife continued to babble on about how she was going to basically use their neighbor as a dress-up doll. She had always wanted a daughter; he had just barely stopped her from putting Ryoma in a dress when he was three-years-old.

Akira just stared at the Echizen matriarch with a blank look on her face. She wasn't quite sure that she wanted to be neighbors with the Echizens anymore.

* * *

Akira withheld her grumbles as she roughly pulled the small braids out of her short hair. She was walking next to Ryoma, on the way to the metro stop. Today was the day of that tournament Ryoma had signed up for. He'd be playing against sixteen-year-olds, much to her amusement.

Over the course of the last winter months, they had gotten closer. They hadn't really had a choice, as Rinko kept shoving them together, so they had struck up a sort of camaraderie so they wouldn't be bored out of their minds over the summer. Rinko had been ecstatic when they had become friends.

Sure, Akira had kept to her normal work-out schedule, waking up at six and then running for two hours, and then various exercises that she had picked up to stay limber during the war. She had also added to her regimen every day, including weights on her wrists and ankles disguised as sweatbands. Following that, she would usually read for a while, but then, at around noon, she would be dragged over to the Echizen's for lunch, and kept there for at least three hours.

Rinko had become very fond of her over the months they had known each other, and had kept her threat of doing her hair and trying to force her into 'cute' outfits; hence her picking braids out of her hair, and resulting in it being messier than usual when she was through. Thankfully, she hadn't been subjected to anything other than a hairstyle today, and was a bit more at ease wearing her boys' clothing.

Akira ruffled her hair edgily, making sure that all the tiny little braids were undone. She had no desire to go aboard the metro with a girly hairstyle. Especially if there were fan girls. They never seemed to notice that she was, in fact, a girl, and just thought she was a feminine boy with a feminine hairstyle, which only seemed to increase their incessant giggling; much to Ryoma's mixed amusement and irritation.

Once they had finally gotten onto their mode of transportation, they immediately took seats near the door and next to each other. One of the reasons they had gotten along so well was their semi-antisocial attitudes. Ryoma was cockier and more oblivious, while Akira was calmer and more observant. Their personalities had clicked better than they had expected, which had helped them to survive Rinko's mothering.

She slumped a little into the hard plastic bench attached to the inside of the train, trying to find a better position. She twitched in displeasure as her tennis back poked into her side as the train hit a small bump. Looking around irritably, she caught a glimpse of a semi-familiar person sitting across from them, but didn't bother to dwell on it further.

A few minutes later, the metro had stopped to pick up a few more people. Much to Akira's chagrin, among those people were a loudmouthed teen bragging to his little friends about his tennis skills. After a while of listening to the aggravating boasting, she looked at him funny when he was bragging about his grip on a tennis racket; one of which he was swinging around carelessly. The guy didn't even know which was the Eastern grip or the Western.

She would have been content to watch him make a fool of himself even further, but after another bump in the track, in which the teen lost his grip on the racket, Ryoma decided to speak up.

"Can't you keep it down?" he asked, his chin resting in his palms as he leaned his elbows on his legs.

The high-school guy started in surprise, losing his grip on the racket he had been swinging around. Akira inwardly rolled her eyes; the first rule of combat was to never drop your weapon, and that applied in sports as well.

"Ahahaha. This is embarrassing! Getting told off by a little kid and all!" the guy tried to shake it off as he reached to pick up his racket.

Akira's eyes sparked in amusement as she saw Ryoma twitch in irritation out of the corner of her eye.

When the high-school-guy grabbed the racket to pick it up, Ryoma spoke up again.

"Bingo. Holding the upper part of the grip and clamping it - that's the correct Western grip." he said, pointing to the position the guys hand was in. "Another thing - the 'shaking hands' grip you were talking about earlier? That's the Eastern grip. Don't feel bad though. It's common for people to learn the opposite way."

Before the reddening teen could respond to Ryoma's 'well-meant' advice, the train pulled to a stop and the intercom proclaimed that it was Akira and Ryoma's stop. They waited for the leaving people to get off the train, watching as the teen also got off, his friends laughing at him.

Akira followed Ryoma off next. They stopped in the middle of the station, neither of them remembering which way the Kakinokizaka Tennis Garden was. Akira didn't particularly care, as it wasn't a tournament she was playing in, but she could see Ryoma getting slightly agitated.

She was about to suggest that they leave through the northern exit, when she saw Ryoma turn his head to look at something. She followed his gaze, and saw him staring at a familiar-looking girl. Akira blinked in surprise as she noticed the telltale braids, and realized that this was Ryuzaki's granddaughter that she had seen when exploring Seigaku.

"Do you know the way to the Kakinokizaka Tennis Gardens?" Ryoma asked the girl bluntly.

The girls face lit up with a nervous smile. "Ah! I'm heading there to watch the matches too! Are you going to be in a match? Tennis is so new to me!" she rambled slightly.

Ryoma just stared at her while Akira watched in amusement. "…so which way is it?" he asked.

Ryuzaki flushed in embarrassment. "Ah, sorry… I just… Exit from the south gate, and you'll soon notice it." she said.

"South gateway… right, thanks."

Ryoma turned and walked away without saying anything further, Akira following and observing everything with an sharp eye.

Akira wasn't quite sure that they were going the right way though, and after walking straight south for fifteen minutes and not finding the tournament's location, she put a hand on Ryoma's shoulder.

"Ryoma-kun, we had better turn around. This isn't the right way." she said bluntly.

Ryoma pulled at the rim of his baseball cap in irritation, before turning around, and running off back towards the train station. Akira jogged after him lazily, not really caring if she lost sight of him, as she'd find him later. She never did though, and continued to follow him as he passed by the train station and running north of it.

When she heard the 'pok-ing' sound of tennis balls, Akira knew they had come the right way this time. She wasn't sure if Ryoma was going to be on time for the sign-up though, especially after their little detour. She caught up to him just as he reached the registration as they closed down.

Akira saw Ryoma's face twitch in irritation, before he started to mumble under his breath. When she heard what he was saying, she smirked slightly.

"Ryoma-kun. It is not polite to swear. Perhaps your mother should teach you some better manners." she added the last sentence thoughtfully, subtly teasing her friend.

"Che. From what I've heard from her, I'd be better off learning from you. After all, you're the 'ever so polite' Akira-kun." Ryoma mocked back.

Akira smirked at her friend as he settled down a little bit. "Touché," she said as they reclined on the grass near the courts. They both leaned back against their respective tennis bags and crossed their legs. "We might as well watch the matches and see how good the players are around here." Akira said. Ryoma just nodded absentmindedly, and she knew that he'd probably just fall asleep. So, she pulled out a psychological thriller book from her tennis bag, and started to read.

About ten minutes later, Akira heard soft steps coming their way. She briefly looked up from her book and raised an eyebrow at the downcast looking girl.

'It's that Ryuzaki girl again…' Akira thought curiously.

"Ah!" Sakuno exclaimed as she saw the two from the train lying on the grass. She walked timidly up to them. "Um… the match… were you late?" she asked anxiously.

Ryoma glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, before closing it again. "Five mintes late, disqualified." he said in an uncaring tone.

Akira smirked slightly as the girl stuttered out, "S-sorry… Was it because of me…?"

"Bingo. Did you come here to cause more trouble?" Ryoma asked pitilessly as he sat up.

The girl just fidgeted uncomfortably, her face red with shame and embarrassment.

Akira looked between the two, before giving an inaudible sigh as Ryoma abruptly stated, "I'm thirsty."

The girl immediately took that as a way to make it up to them for giving them wrong directions. "I-I'll buy some!" she stuttered loudly.

Ryoma walked lazily over to the nearby vending machines, Sakuno trailing behind him like a kicked puppy. Akira followed them unenthusiastically, still reading her book.

Akira resisted the urge to chuckle as the Ryuzaki girl realized that she had no loose change for the vendor. She watched as her friend sighed, before digging in his jacket pockets for some loose coins and pushing them into the machine. He pressed a couple of buttons and two cans of grape Ponta and one orange fell through the dispenser.

Akira smiled slightly as he tossed the orange-flavored one to her. One of the perks of friendship was the fact that he knew her favorite soda and didn't mind buying one for her every once in a while. She slipped her bookmark in between the pages that she had most recently read, and stuck it back into her tennis bag.

She was just about to open her can of soda, when she heard an annoyingly familiar voice.

"Hey. Isn't that midget the little boy I saw before?" Akira turned her head to the side, and much to her displeasure, she saw the boastful teen from the train, flanked by his friends.

"Heh. Looks like he lost so he's leaving." the teenage girls said contemptuously.

Akira saw Ryoma look at the trio of teens with a frown, and Sakuno start to sweat in fear and nervousness.

Then, her sharp green eyes caught the malicious grin on the ringleader's face. A split second later, he was charging towards Ryoma, tennis racket held out like a club. Akira moved reflexively, catching the racket before it hit her friend's face.

Akira tilted her head, her bangs shifting over her eyes, and gripped the tennis racket until the wood creaked. A spine-chilling smile appeared on her face.

"It's not nice to threaten people," she said simply. "Then again, you know the Golden Rule, right? Treat others how you want to be treated. Perhaps you wish to be hit with my tennis racket?" she said in a contemplative voice, almost talking to herself.

The teenager quickly gathered his nerve, only gulping slightly, before jeering at his target. "Hah! Can't even defend yourself! You need your little friend to do it! How dare you talk to me about tennis?" He glared down at Ryoma. "Thinking you can beat me with just theories is a big mistake. Keep that in mind!" he sneered, before turning to walk away.

Akira watched through narrow eyes as he knocked into the Ryuzaki girl, her Ponta spilling all over his shirt.

"Ahh! You got crap all over my shirt!" he yelled as he glared at the timid girl. "It's sticky! What am I gong to do now, idiot! Unlike the little boy, I have matches!"

"S-sorry…" the girl stuttered out.

Just before things could get out of hand, the was a 'pfsh' sound as Ryoma opened his can of Ponta. Everyone turned to look at the sound. Ryoma gave them all an indifferent look.

"Hey… Did you learn how to grip yet?" he asked nonchalantly. He took a sip of his favorite drink, before smirking. "Well if you didn't… I might even teach you a move!" he said cockily.

The teen stared at him, before sneering out, "You're on!" and walking in the direction of nearby empty tennis court. His friends trailed behind him, making snide comments about Ryoma and how fun it would be to see him crushed by 'Sasabe.'

'So 'Sasabe' is that fool's name?' Akira thought impassively as they all walked onto the court. She accepted Ryoma's jacket as he took it off so he could play better, folding it and setting it on the bench next to her.

She rolled her eyes as she heard the cheers coming from Sasabe's friends.

"Yo guys, Sasabe is being really public with this! He must be really confident!"

"Beat him into the ground!"

"Go go go!"

And then from their mouth of the moron himself, "Yo little boy! Seems you need a beating to get your mind straight! Don't regret it!" he said arrogantly.

Ryoma eyed him with boredom. "Is that so?"

No one volunteered to referee, so the game started when Sasabe proclaimed, "The best of one set match! Sasabe service play!"

Akira narrowed her eyes at him again as he hit the ball. She didn't like the fact that it was a self-refereed game. Especially given the kind of person her friend was playing.

"Hah! You think you can return my serve?!" he yelled as he swung his racket.

Akira watched with boredom. As her friend played against Sasabe. Ryoma missed the first serve purposefully, wanting to see its capabilities. Then, Sasabe served again and was promptly shocked as Ryoma easily returned it. The teen then gave the customary 'you got lucky' comment, and was proved wrong as his next serve was also returned.

After that, the match sort of degenerated into the high-school player saying things along the lines of 'No! It's not possible! You can't be beating me!' and Ryoma easily scoring point after point.

Soon, the first game was finished, Ryoma in the lead and ready to service. Akira watched lazily as he served. It wasn't the Twist Serve, but it was a lot faster than average.

"Since you're playing in the finals, I'd better make this quick!" Ryoma taunted as the high-school kids were all amazed by his serve power.

"He wasn't at the tennis grounds, so he was at a place like this? Ya sure can't reason with that prince." a voice said near the entrance to the court.

Akira turned her head towards the new voice in the court, only to have her eyes widen slightly as she saw Seigaku's coach, Ryuzaki Sumire. She listened on as she talked more to herself.

"His form is killer, eh? He's so much like his father!" the coach said, watching the match with nostalgia.

Akira privately agreed. Ryoma needed to branch out and get his own style. She was going to listen to what else the coach had to say about her friend's performance, but that hope was dashed by Ryuzaki's granddaughter exclaiming,

"Grandma! It c-can't be… Your disciple's son… is him?" she cried in shock.

Akira sat up a little straighter. Seigaku's coach trained the 'Samurai'? A small smirk lit her face. She was more than sure now that Seigaku had been a good school choice. Especially since the principal agreed to let her wear the boys' uniform as opposed to the girls' extremely short sailor-esque uniform.

"That's right." the coach told her granddaughter.

"Wha? The four time American Junior Champion?!" Sakuno gasped out in amazement.

Her grandmother nodded slightly. "The whole family visits this country every few years, so their names are unknown. Before the tournament, they told him, 'Since you are very skilled, instead of the twelve year division, join the fourteen year division.' Bah! That kid went and joined the division with the sixteen-year-olds!" Ryuzaki said in amusement.

Akira tilted her head slightly. 'Ryuzaki must have a high opinion of Ryoma, or is at least amused by his attitude.' she contemplated. 'Perhaps because she know that he is going to attend her school and wants him on the tennis team?'

"He's good enough, so it doesn't matter anyways." the older woman said, watching the match with mild interest. She didn't seemed to notice the impact of her words on the high-school players friends. They were all gaping at the courts, watching Ryoma in disbelief.

One of them seemed to gather his nerve, for the next minutes, he was shouting, ""Sasabe! Go up to the front! There's no need to show any mercy! Show him your special net play!"

Akira smiled slightly in amusement as she rested her chin on her hands. 'They think something that simple will work on Ryoma? Besides, he can't go up to the net because he has to return the balls that Ryoma is hitting towards the baseline.'

She watched as the player rallied the balls. Ryoma seemed to be aiming towards the edges of the courts so as to tire his opponent out. She could tell that Sasabe was getting irritated and fatigued.

"Hey… aren't you going to use you special net play?" she heard her friend say. She rolled her eyes slightly at his cocky attitude.

Suddenly, Ryoma hit the ball fast enough that Sasabe couldn't react, and it flew past him. She heard mini-Ryuzaki cheering in amazement from the sides.

"Hold up!" one of Sasabe's friends said. "Wasn't that ball just out right now?" he asked.

Akira kept an impassive expression on her face. Apparently she was correct in her earlier assumption. The high-school attendees didn't seem to be above cheating.

Sasbe stared at where the ball had hit earlier, the mark clearly still inside the court. He got an odd expression on his face. "Heh. Idiot! Who said it was in? Of course it was out!" he said arrogantly, resting his racket on his shoulder.

Akira saw her friend stand there, saying nothing. The next ball he hit was also in, but was claimed 'out' by Sasabe when he missed it.

"What are you talking about! That was definitely in!" Sakuno burst.

Akira sighed slightly. "This is a self-judged game." she said, drawing the two Ryuzaki's attentions to herself. "The fools will judge it in whatever way it benefits them most." Akira said bluntly. "However… Ryoma-kun has no chance of losing."

Ryoma, not wanting his next hit to be declared 'out' didn't hit his next shot towards the deep end. Sasabe took the chance and hit it back, immediately moving up to the net with a smug expression on his face.

Ryoma returned with a lob. Everyone on the sidelines watch in awe as the ball didn't bounce, stopping right before the baseline. There was silence for a moment.

"Hey. The ball I just hit. It's in right?" Ryoma said in a bored voice, hiding his mocking tone.

Akira heard Seigaku's coach chuckle at Ryoma's playing. 'I wonder when Ryoma will hurry up and finish this.' she thought in boredom. She was just going to voice this opinion when she saw an odd glint appear in the losing player's eyes.

Her eyes widened as she saw him throw the racket at Ryoma's face. It hit with a muffled 'thwack'. Sasabe's friends started to laugh as blood dripped from Ryoma's forehead.

"Sorry this happened, my hand slipped. Why don't we just stop?" Sasabe asked 'kindly'.

Akira narrowed her eyes at him, and was seriously considering cursing him, when Ryoma spoke up again.

"Hmm… You still haven't shown me a proper grip… This is just the beginning!" Ryoma declared, pointing his index finger at his assaulter.

Sasabe scoffed. "Let's see how long you can use such big words."

Akira chuckled darkly. It was Ryoma's serve now. Sasabe was going to regret throwing a racket at her little friend.

She watched knowingly as Ryoma started to bounce the tennis ball. 'So he's going to use that serve, huh? Good.' she thought ominously.

"C'mon! Hit it already!" Ryoma's opponent yelled.

Ryoma obliged. The ball hit in front of Sasabe. He smirked haughtily. "I got this!" he shouted smugly.

Akira watched in vindictive glee as the ball shot in the opposite direction, knocking the racket out of Sasabe's hand. The court was silent except for the disbelieving comments from the high-school students.

"15-0." Ryoma stated, before throwing the ball in the air, arching his back, and hitting it towards the other side of the court.

"Twist Serve?!" one of the sixteen-year-olds screeched in horror. The ball shot upwards and hit Sasabe in the nose. He fell to the ground on his rear, staring at his opponent in disbelief and anger.

"30-0." Ryoma stated the score again.

Akira started to get bored once more as Ryoma hit another Twist Serve, this time hitting Sasabe's elbow.

"40-0." Ryoma acknowledged, getting ready to serve again. "Eat this." he said, staring directly at Sasabe.

Much to Akira's amusement, Sasabe broke down, cringing behind his upheld racket and shouting, "No… Noo!"

The ball bounced harmlessly beside him, without the signature spin of the Twist Serve.

"Fool." Ryoma stated. "Game set!" he turned to walk towards Akira, wanting to get his jacket back, when Sasabe ran up to the net.

"Wait you little midget! When did I say we were only playing one set?! Play another and you'll taste the bitterness of defeat!" he shouted.

Akira listened in disbelief. He sounded like one of those intellectually-challenged villains on a children's cartoon.

"If you are a real man, you should know to fairly accept defeat." Seigaku's coach said in amusement. "Besides, no matter how many times you play, you'll never beat Echizen Ryoma."

Sasabe's eyes bulged in fury. "What was that!? You old hag!" he howled. "Give me your best shot!" He turned to Ryoma, only to find him already in his serving position, the racket in his left hand.

"What!?" he yelled as the ball streaked past him and Ryoma earned another point.

Akira tilted her head backwards, hearing rapid footsteps coming in their direction, only to see one of the officials running the tournament coming towards them. In a flash, she was next to Ryoma, shoving the jacket into his arms and dragging him off the court.

"Hey, you punks! You're not supposed to play without permission! Get off the courts!" he yelled, huffing and puffing as he jogged towards them.

Akira turned the corner and slowed to a walk, letting Ryoma gain his bearings.

"Well… that was fun." Akira drawled. "It seems that the players, at least the sixteen-year-olds here aren't that great at tennis. They're only above average in athletics and break down mentally so fast it's almost pathetic." she stated mildly. "I hope the middle school player are better than that."

"Che." Ryoma agreed with a grunt of annoyance as they walked into the train station.

"Well, at least we'll be able to see for ourselves in a few days. Seigaku is supposed to have a good tennis team." Akira smirked slightly.

Ryoma blinked in surprise as they boarded the metro. Apparently he had forgotten that school started in a few days. They sat in silence, Akira reading her psychological thriller again, and Ryoma snoring slightly as he napped.

They hit a bump in the tracks and Ryoma's head slid from its resting place on the window onto Akira's shoulder. She looked down in surprise, resisting the urge to pull away. She inwardly shrugged, before going back to her book. A few minutes later, the train had stopped and Akira was poking Ryoma into consciousness.

He scowled at her without any real displeasure and together they walked to their street, parting ways to go to their respective houses.

Akira sighed happily as she sunk into the couch in her mini-library. She was looking forward to starting middle school. Hopefully they had a good chemistry class.


	5. Chapter 5

Woo-hoo! I got over 1,000 people reading my story!

I especially thank those who reviewed my story; here I am going to answer a few of the questions you have posed.

About getting a job: Akira isn't going to need more money any time soon because of the trust vault that her parents left her and the inheritance that Sirius willed to her. It's a huge pile of gold. Even if it does run out, by the time it does, she'll be old enough to get a job.

About the American vs. Japanese vacation time: I'm actually fixing that. I found a decent time line for the Prince of Tennis events, and I'm changing a bit of the story to align with that. For instance, Ryoma first joins the regulars in April of 2008. I'm changing the story so that she moves to Japan in January 2008.

About her mental age: She was just about to turn eighteen when struck with the de-aging curse, which turned her body back nine years. She was then eight going on nine. Add three years spent in America, and she'd turn 21 in July, 2007. (physically when she was nine, she'd be eighteen mentally - just add one to each until you reach her current body age.)

About the Echizen's surprise at her speaking English: They didn't really register the fact that she hadn't lived in Japan her whole life. I think they vaguely thought that she had been raised in Japan, despite her western features. And there's the fact that it's not every day you meet a bilingual eleven-year-old.

As for pairings: I have no idea what I'm going to do for these. Sure, she's physically around the age of anyone I'd pair her with, but mentally, well, they'd probably seem very immature to her. Plus there's the fact that she might see herself as a pedophile… I really don't know. I have no idea how I'd handle romance, especially with these circumstances.

I hope this clears things up a little. Enjoy the new chapter!

* * *

Moving Forward chapter 5

Akira leaned back slightly in her chair in the corner of the classroom, inhaling the scent of the fresh orange slice in her hand. It was the first day of middle school, and contrary to most children, she looking forward to it. It could be the fact that she wasn't actually a child in mind, but then again, what adult enjoyed school? Maybe she was just abnormal in this aspect of her life as well.

She put the orange slice in her mouth, a small smile appearing on her face as the tangy citrus juice of her favorite fruit spread across her tongue as she chewed. After she swallowed, she took another from the small plastic container on her desk. She had slept in a little too long that morning, and had dashed all the way to school with her breakfast consisting of an orange in a container and a thermos of hot jasmine tea. Her back was still a little bit sore from her tennis bag knocking against her back every time her foot hit the ground.

It was actually a very good thing that she had gotten the boys' uniform, because if she had been wearing the correct uniform for her gender, she was pretty sure she would have accidentally flashed somebody because of the short skirt.

Akira sat up a little straighter as the school bell rang, stuffing the remaining bit of orange into her mouth and washing it down with the last of her tea. She crammed the container and thermos into her backpack as the other freshman students started to make their way into the classroom.

Akira hid her exasperation as she noticed a certain boy missing from the mob of twelve-year-olds in the room.

'I bet that he fell asleep again somewhere on the grounds.' she thought with boredom.

Her suspicions were confirmed as he came barreling into the room just as the second bell rang. Ryoma rubbed his eyes a little bit, before plopping himself down at the desk next to hers.

The teacher came in about half a minute later muttering to himself and shuffling a few papers. Their homeroom teacher was a short, balding little man. He reminded her of a rat. Her lip curled slightly as she remembered Wormtail, a rat animagus (a witch or wizard who can turn into a specific animal at will) who had betrayed her parents to their deaths at the hands of Voldemort.

The man had been a complete coward, sniveling at the feet of the Dark Lord. She wasn't sure that she liked her homeroom teacher.

As time went by, it became increasingly apparent that the teacher had absolutely no control over the freshman, and within minutes of the start of the class, most of the twelve-year-olds were chatting with their neighbors or blowing spit wads across the room. Akira frowned at the teacher, and figured if the fretful man wasn't going to do anything, she was going to follow their lead. So with one last look around the chaotic classroom, noting the sleeping figure of her neighbor on desk over, she reached into her backpack and pulled out her psychological thriller again.

Soon, the bell rang again, and the class ran from the room, only those that walked slower hearing their teacher say to go to the main office to get their schedules.

Akira watched them lazily as they left before leaning over to poke Ryoma awake. When he started to stir sleepily, she stood up, swinging her backpack onto her shoulder as she did.

"Ryoma-kun. You need to go the main office and get your schedule if you haven't already." she said indifferently. "I've already gotten mine, so see you after school unless we have classes together." Then she left him to wake himself up the rest of the way and started to walk towards her next class: History of Japan.

Classes went by with the smoothness of boredom; except perhaps Psychology in which the teacher made one girl have an emotional breakdown. In the most of the standard classes, Ryoma was in the same classroom, but they didn't really feel the need to talk in class, unlike some of the more air-headed students.

Akira only really got interested when she checked her schedule and saw that her last class of the day was Chemistry. Technically, as she was a freshman, she wouldn't be able to do the Chemistry class, but she had taken a placement test earlier in the year specifically so that she could have it.

With a small smile on her face, she walked towards an empty table in the class room. She sat down in one of the two chairs, and, upon checking the clock, saw that there were still a few minutes until class started. She settled back in her chair and pulled her book back out of her backpack.

Soon, the rest of the class started to filter in, giving her strange looks seemingly because of her younger appearance. The teacher walked in moments later as the second bell rang.

This time, the teacher was a tall woman with curly brown hair, wearing oval-shaped glasses and a lab coat. She gave the class a wry look, before starting to talk. "Welcome to Chemistry. You may call me Maruko-sensei. I congratulate all of you for choosing this sensible class for your elective as opposed to picking a class like Drama. Or just not choosing an elective class at all." She gave the class a stern look that contrasted with her hair. "Now, in this class, I don't care what you do when the lesson is over as long as it's not life-threatening. In fact, if you get good grades in this subject, after class you will be allowed access to the equipment here."

A few students gave eerie smiles at that, including Akira.

"Now, I'm going to ask you all to stand up, one at a time, and introduce yourselves so that I know what to yell when you mess up. Also tell your grade and… what school club you're in."

One by one, the class stood up, introducing themselves in different manners according to their personality. The teacher checked names off of her roll call clipboard as they went. It went rather quickly, and before long it was Akira's turn.

"I am Kitamori Akira, a freshman." she got a few incredulous looks and whispered conversations from her classmates because of her grade. "As it is the first day, I have yet to join a club." she gave Maruko-sensei a questioning look.

The teacher gave her a considering look. "So you're the freshman, eh?" she asked rhetorically. "Alright, why don't you say the club you intend to join?"

Akira gave a small nod. "I plan on joining the tennis club."

That set off a whole new round of whispers. She ignored them rather well with the ease of practice. Because, all things considered, being the so-called 'savior' of the Wizarding world garnered a lot of unwanted attention.

After that, the class went rather nicely. As there was an uneven number of students in the class, she got to work alone. Akira was happy with that; no partner meant that no one would mess up. At the end of the class, Maruko-sensei announced that whoever they were seated with would be their partner for the rest of the year. Many of the students groaned at that.

Before they could wallow in their misery too much, the bell rang. The students rushed out of the classroom as fast as possible without getting themselves stuck in the doorway; Akira lingered behind.

"Maruko-sensei." Akira called to the teacher before she could leave.

Maruko turned, slightly surprised that there was still a kid in the classroom and slightly reluctant that she had to talk to another probably whiney kid. "Yes Kitamori-kun? Can I do something for you?"

"I didn't have a partner in class, so will I be working with anyone for the rest of the year?" Akira asked bluntly.

Maruko smiled with an air of relief, very happy that it wasn't an annoying problem. "That's not an issue. Inui Sadaharu missed today's class because he's on a playing tour with the tennis team."

Akira nodded in thoughtful acknowledgement, before turning on her heel and walking out of the classroom. She wondered which of the regulars she had seen earlier that summer was her lab partner. After a few minutes of pondering, she decided to let the matter settle itself the next day, and continued onwards to get ready for the tennis club.

She headed towards her locker first, intent on grabbing her tennis bag and shoes. Once she had retrieved it, she made her way to the girls' locker room near the sports facilities. She opened the door cautiously, her eyes darting around instinctively to assess the room. There weren't many girls in the room yet, as it was still early enough that they would be lounging about with friends and whatnot as opposed to getting prepared for their sports club. When she found nothing remotely dangerous, except perhaps the rabid fan-girls congregating in one corner, she moved stealthily past all the preoccupied girls and into a changing stall.

She slung her backpack off of her shoulder, setting her tennis bag down while she picked her tennis outfit out of the bag. She dressed as quickly as possible into her loose, but sensible long black shorts and green t-shirt, also changing out her school regulated shoes for her tennis shoes. She had forgone wearing sweatpants or a long-sleeved shirt, as the April weather wasn't very cold. As an afterthought, she reached into another pocket in her backpack, and grabbed two wristbands that had been given to her by Rinko, who had gotten them because they were her favorite colors.

They were black and with a green stripe through their middles. She slipped them on over her wrist weights, previously hidden by the long-sleeved jacket of the boys' uniform. She was rather proud of herself, as her weights were now up to ten pounds on each wrist and twenty on each ankle.

When she was done changing, she grabbed her bags and poked her head out of the changing stall, looking to see if there were any girls between her and the door. She really didn't want to get heckled into joining a conversation with the prissy little girls that made up the majority of Seigaku's female population. Seeing that the coast was clear, she darted out of the locker room and towards the tennis courts.

As she passed through the entrance hall, she saw her neighbor, still in his school uniform. Akira's eyebrow drifted upwards without any real thought as she saw him being tailed by a boy with a uni-brow. When she walked closer, she heard 'Uni-brow' bragging about his tennis knowledge.

She resisted the urge to laugh out loud, as it wouldn't be a good thing to do in a hall full of people. Ryoma probably had more 'experience' with tennis in his pinky finger than that guy. Ryoma started to look mildly annoyed with the guy following him, so she decided to step in. Before she could however, Ryoma walked up to a sophomore who she recognized as one of the tennis regulars. She wondered what he was doing at the school when the rest of the team was on tour.

She was close enough to hear her friend ask the sophomore for directions to the tennis court. Akira narrowed her eyes slightly as she heard the tennis regular give Ryoma the wrong directions. She sped up her walk slightly to catch up to Ryoma before he went too far in the wrong direction.

Catching up, she grabbed his shoulder, the uni-browed boy walking on ahead, bragging to no one.

"Ryoma-kun. The tennis courts are this way." she stated, tugging him slightly before letting go.

He gave her a questioning look that she easily interpreted after spending the majority of three months with him.

"I explored Seigaku a bit when I came to register back in January." she said in a bored voice as they walked towards the courts. Before they could enter the courts, Akira heard the sound of rapid footsteps approaching from behind.

"Hey Echizen! Wait up!"

Akira resisted to roll her eyes as Uni-brow ran up to them, panting a little.

"Geez! What's up with you ditching me like that, huh Echizen? You'd think that you would actually be smart and take advantage of my two years of tennis experience!" the annoying boy bragged, puffing out his chest slightly.

Akira would have been content to not be noticed by the uni-brow boy, but alas, it was not to be. He seemed to notice her standing there after Ryoma hadn't reacted to his proclamation of his 'talent.'

"Hey, who are you?" the boy asked brazenly.

She looked at him blankly. She debated on whether or not to reprimand him for not introducing himself first, but decided that it wasn't worth it. "Kitamori Akira." she said indifferently.

Uni-brow puffed up his chest again. "I'm the great Horio! I have two years of tennis experience! Stick with me and you'll go far in the tennis club!"

Akira raised an eyebrow at him, before turning away and continuing onwards towards the tennis courts.

As they walked, Akira could hear Uni-bro- um… Horio muttering rather loudly about the 'stupid second year giving wrong directions'. Thankfully, when they got to the courts, he shut up for a while to look around in awe like an idiot, gaping mouth and all.

"Woah! Seigaku's facilities are killer!"

Sadly, the silence did not last.

Akira looked around the courts, looking for something to do. A couple of freshman that were hanging around told Ryoma and Uni-brow about the regular's absence. Since the regulars weren't there, she supposed that registration and practice would start tomorrow. She was just about to leave and jog to the street courts for some exercise, when a couple of older middle-school students walked up to the small group of first year middle-schoolers.

She didn't bother to listen as they introduced themselves, watching indifferently as the other freshman except for Ryoma bowed to their upperclassmen. How over-the-top can you get? One lesson well-learned in the war was to never give respect unless someone earned it.

"Won't you play a game with us?" one of them asked, a wicked gleam in his eyes.

The freshmen besides Ryoma and her all looked at him curiously. Akira looked at him with narrowed eyes. She looked him straight in the eyes, delving into his mind to see what juvenile little trick he would be trying to play. She soon withdrew from the sophomore's mind with slight disgust.

Apparently, he was going to try and cheat them out of their money by telling them to knock a can full of rocks down with a tennis ball. If they could do it in ten tries, they would get 10000 yen, which was seemingly a good deal compared to the 200 yen entry fee. They were planning on filling the can with rocks. And charge 500 yen per hit. She watched with disapproval as they tried to goad the first years into playing the game.

Akira watched with indifference, walking over to sit on a section of grass by the courts as the first-year trio got scammed. She really didn't care about it; she didn't know the people getting scammed, and since Ryoma was smart enough not to be tricked, she let the sophomores get on with their petty trick.

As the more naïve freshman grabbed some tennis balls to begin the game, she heard her neighbor say that he had a bad feeling about the situation. She repressed a smile, pulling out her psycho-thriller. She was glad that she had made friends with one of the rarer, more street-wise preteens in Japan.

Akira opened her book to the spot she had left off at, getting absorbed into the world of fiction as the main character went through her paces. Her eyes cleared of the fog that comes with thought when a loud shout was heard.

"The great Horio, with two years of tennis experience, shall now come up to play!"

Akira looked up from her book, a stormy expression barely withheld from her face, ready to unleash at least a verbal lashing on whoever it was that disturbed her reading. Ah. It was the uni-brow boy coming up to the 'game'.

She leaned backwards on the grass, supporting herself with her hands. She was going to get some vindictive enjoyment out of watching the boastful boy make a fool of himself. None of his shots hit, but her eyes filled with sort of mocking surprise when he grazed the can, even though it was on accident.

She watched with a slight scowl on her face as the sophomores instigating the whole thing revealed the extra fee per hit that they had failed to mention at the beginning. Middle-schoolers these days had absolutely no principles. Then again, they might have always been like this. She knew that her elementary school experience could have been a lot better without her cousin bullying her. She had hoped that the middle-school students would be a bit more mature though.

Her head jerked up slightly as the second-years turned to Ryoma and tried to goad him into playing. She groaned silently. Even with knowing Ryoma for only a summer, she knew that if you dared him, he'd never back down. One of the more immature aspects of her little friend, along with his cockiness.

Akira rolled her eyes, putting her book back into her backpack. She got up from her place on the ground and brushed her gym clothes off. She walked over to the fence separating everything from the court, watching with exasperation as Ryoma hit the can near the top, toppling it over and letting the rocks spill out. Ryoma hit the can over and over, a smirk on his face at the shocked looks of everyone - except her.

"If I hit the can 100 times, will you give me 1,000,000 yen?" Ryoma asked mockingly.

She was just about to tell Ryoma that she was going to leave, maybe go to the street courts, when the was another clanging sound. Akira's head whipped to the source of the sound, calculating if there was any danger. Her face went blank at the sight of the can being hit again- this time by another person. She looked to where the shot should have come from and saw the only tennis regular at school that day. The one who had given her little friend the wrong directions.

She analyzed the can again, noting that the can had bent under the force of the serve, before turning back to the regular and scanning his build. He was tall. Ryoma, who was only an inch or so shorter than her, would barely come up to his shoulder. He seemed to have a body trained for power shots. The thing she noticed most though, was that he seemed to favor one leg more than the other. As if he had an injury.

"Ooh! I hit it! Lucky~!" he exclaimed light-heartedly. "Didn't think I could make it."

Akira's eyes narrowed slightly as she saw the scammer-sophomores subtly defer to the regular. Apparently regulars on the tennis team got a lot of respect from the school.

"Momoshiro…" one of the scammers started to say, but was cut off as Momoshiro started to talk.

"Hey. Since none of the third years are here, you think picking on your underclassmen is okay? You can't do that!" he said, leaning his racket on his right shoulder.

The other freshman seemed to notice that they were in the presence of another, more respectable apparently, upperclassman, and bowed, shouting out "Nice to meet you!"

Ryoma just stood there, not really caring, and turned to walk away once he was sure the excitement was over.

Akira analyzed the can again. 'He has some power, being able to dent the can like that.' she thought as she walked towards Ryoma, holding out his tennis bag to him.

"Hey, who said you can leave?"

The two neighbors turned around, wondering what the tennis regular wanted with them. They didn't get to know right away though, as another voice cut in.

"R-ryoma??"

Akira turned her head to see the Ryuzaki girl standing there next to an excitable-looking girl. She was getting mildly annoyed at all of the drama. Especially when she saw that Ryoma didn't recognize the timid girl.

Momoshiro immediately latched onto the name though. "Ah! So you're that Echizen Ryoma!" he said. "I'm second year, Momoshiro Takeshi." he introduced himself. "Want to play a set?" he asked almost eagerly.

Akira looked at the boy a bit suspiciously. Why exactly did he want to play a complete stranger. It could be because he saw him hit the can accurately a few times in a row, but she doubted it. How would he find out about Ryoma's skills in tennis though? Thankfully, he probably wasn't of any danger to her little friend unless he was one of those violent tennis players.

Ryoma shrugged, and the taller boy took that as a 'yes'. "Great! This will be fun!" and with that, sat down on a bench, waiting for Ryoma to change into his tennis outfit. Akira sat on the far side of the bench and turned to Momoshiro.

"So. Why is it that a regular of the Seigaku tennis team wants to play Ryoma-kun?" Akira asked bluntly.

Momshiro looked at her with wide purple eyes for a moment, before regaining his composure. "Just want to see the little guy's skills. Heard from the coach that he knows the Twist Serve." he said with a smile.

Akira raised an eyebrow. "I doubt that you'll get a real knowledge of his skill level if you're playing with that ankle." she countered dryly.

Momoshiro gave her a 'deer-caught-in-the-headlights' look for a moment, before shakily saying, "Heheh. I don't really know what you're talking about." He forced his grin a bit wider.

Akira hid a frown behind a subtly sarcastic smile, her eyes shutting enough so that they looked closed from the outside. They were too expressive sometimes for her tastes. "Hmm. Perhaps I made a mistake. It is a rare occurrence, but possible." she said politely, though her tone had a slight undercurrent that stated she thought it not likely. She ignored the sweat-drop on his forehead and his expression looking as if he had just seen a ghost.

"Eh…" he searched for a way to say it politely. "What's your family name?" he asked with a strange expression.

Akira adopted a slightly surprised look, still smiling slightly "I'm sorry for not introducing myself earlier. My name is Kitamori Akira. I'm a freshman here."

Momoshiro still looked at her funnily. "Do you know if you're in any way related to the Fuji family?"

This time it was her turn to give him a weird look. She raised an eyebrow. "I'm not." she said, a question in her voice. "Is there a reason you're asking?"

"Umm… Heheh. You just remind me of another person on the tennis team." he said awkwardly. Fortunately for Momoshiro, Ryoma saved him from further discomfort when he walked to the bench, ready to play tennis.

Akira stood up, patting Ryoma on the head despite their similar heights. "Good luck Ryoma-kun. I would love to stay and watch your match, but I find myself wanting to play tennis myself. I'm going to the street courts, but I'll see you when you get home."

Ryoma just gave her a disgruntled look and adjusted his white cap again.

Smirking slightly, she walked away from the tennis court, intending on jogging all the way home to drop off her things before hitting the street courts.

Akira let her eyes slip shut as she focused on the feel of the refreshing spring breeze hitting her face as she ran. It truly was a wonderful day for exercising. Hopefully she'd be able to find a willing tennis partner this time.

After a while of jogging, she had made it to her house. She unlocked the door, stowing the key away back in her pocket, and walked in. She dashed through the hallway and into her room, setting her backpack down on the desk.

She efficiently spread her homework in neat piles across her desk according to due date, wanting to organize everything before doing something fun. Every once and a while, she would push her long bangs out of her eyes to read the assignments. None of the homework was very hard, especially for someone with her unique age predicament. She decided that she could finish it all up later, when the street courts were less likely to have players.

On her way out of her room, she grabbed her black, zip-up sweater, in case it got colder later on, and walked towards the front door. When she passed the kitchen door, her brain thought of something else to bring, so she waltzed up to the refrigerator and grabbed an orange out of it, not really caring that she had already had one for breakfast.

Hitching her tennis bag securely onto her shoulder, she set out again, this time in the direction of her original destination before she had decided to make a pit stop.

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A/N: Sorry for the longer wait on this chapter by the way. I don't have a very high work-ethic… heheh.

Anyways, please review, and if you could, mention who you would like her to meet at the street tennis courts.


	6. Chapter 6

Well dang. I'm surprised at how popular this story actually is. Thanks to all the people reviewed, your questions will probably be answered over the coarse of the story, so sit tight. I'd also like to thank all the people who put this story on alert or added it to their favorites.

I hope you all continue to enjoy this story.

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Moving Forward chapter 6

Akira sat on one of the benches by the street courts, scanning the area for a good opponent. She had only been sitting there for a few minutes, but she was still a little disappointed that she hadn't seen anyone that would be fun to play with. There were quite a few people playing that day, drawn outside by the refreshing spring weather

No one really seemed to be that good at playing tennis though. Most of the people playing had mediocre skills at best. Akira scanned the people sitting on the benches with a bored look on her face, hoping to find someone with some amount of skill.

She sat there for a few more minutes, her eyes constantly flickering rapidly over all the players, and not really finding anyone that would be fun to play with. She supposed she could challenge anyone, but it just wouldn't be as fun without any challenge. Then again, it might be interesting to see how different people reacted to being completely crushed.

Just as she was about ready to leave and do something more productive than just sitting on a bench, she saw someone walk into the street courts from the entrance opposite form her. She watched him with boredom, swishing her legs aimlessly. When he started to warm up though, she paid a bit more attention.

The guy had skill. Sure, he wasn't National level or anything, but he was a heck of a lot better than the rest of the people currently on the courts.

A small predatory smile appeared on her face as she walked over to him. She had finally found someone to play with.

When she arrived on the other side of the courts, the boy was bending over to grab a tennis ball off the ground. Akira walked up next to him and tapped him on the shoulder. The brown-haired boy whirled around to see who had snuck up on him and stopped short when he saw her, to be frank, scary smile.

"What do you want?" he asked, wariness coloring his tone.

Her smirk widened slightly. "I want to play a game of tennis." she stated simply.

"Why me?" he asked incredulously.

"Because currently, you are the best player here, except for me." she said bluntly.

He looked a little unsure, but agreed. "Alright. There's an empty court over there we can play in."

A self-satisfied twinkle appeared in her eyes for a moment, before disappearing, and she turned to walk with the boy towards said empty court.

Once there, Akira pulled one of her rackets out of her tennis bag. They walked on opposite sides of the net, and Akira held out her racket.

"Rough (back) or smooth (front)?" she asked, setting the rim of her racket on the ground.

"Smooth." the boy said as she spun the racket. When the racket lost momentum and stopped, Akira checked it an revealed it to be smooth. The boy smirked, before grabbing a tennis ball and going to his serving position.

Akira walked over to the opposite corner and took the time to analyze her opponent. He was left-handed, and she could tell that he had an aggressive streak when set off. She wondered what would set him off, but then turned her attention to the game when he served.

Akira easily returned it, aiming for the edge of the court near the net. The boy had to run forward from his position at the baseline to return it. The rally continued like that for a bit, each of the testing their opponents abilities. Then, when Akira started to get bored, she decided to let loose a bit.

The next time the ball came her way, she sliced it backhanded, sending it streaking over to the other side of the net. The ball hit the ground and skidded violently, curving around to the side. The boy gawked at her for a second or two as she gave a small smirk. He suddenly gave a grin, and they played on.

The game went on like that for some time, both players enjoying themselves immensely. Neither of them played very seriously, but they did find ways to improve on their game by testing each other. By the time the game was over, they both had slightly flushed faces from the exercise, though the spring breeze kept them at a more comfortable temperature.

They both walked towards the net, intent on shaking hands.

"Good game." The boy said with a smile, wiping the arm not occupied with her hand across his forehead to stop sweat from dripping into his eyes. "I really enjoyed playing against you. We should do it again sometime. What was your name again?"

Akira nodded in acknowledgment as she pulled her hand away to put it into her pocket. She agreed with him. "Kitamori Akira. We should definitely do this again." she put forward as she rested her racket on her shoulder.

"Ah! I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Fuji Yuuta." the boy said.

Akira blinked at the familiar surname as she tied her zip-up sweatshirt around her waist. Where had she heard that before? Oh yeah. That one Seigaku regular implied that she reminded him of a 'Fuji'.

"Fuji?" she asked. Yuuta nodded curiously, wondering where his new tennis buddy was going with this.

"Do you have an older brother?" she asked with slight interest.

Yuuta's face fell in disappointment, as though he was used to being asked that. "Yeah." he said gloomily.

"Oh. I was wondering, because someone at my school asked if I was related to a 'Fuji'." she said, oblivious to her companion's mood.

Yuuta's face was amusing. His jaw dropped open an inch or two and his eyes widened in complete shock. "You mean that you don't care about the fact that the 'Tensai' is my older brother?" he asked incredulously.

"'Tensai'?" Akira tasted the name on her tongue. "What did he do to earn that nickname?" she asked out loud as they walked towards a bench.

Yuuta looked at her incredulously once more, but this time it had an edge of relief because his new acquaintance wouldn't overlook him because of his older brother. He scowled lightly at the question though. "Oh. He's just perfect in every way." he said in a somewhat bitter tone as they both sat down. "Good grades, great tennis. Everybody loves him."

Akira watched as he unloaded his bitterness to her, a person he had just met. She kept her face carefully blank, though on the inside, there was a sense of understanding.

She knew better than most what it was like to be seen as not good enough in everyone's eyes.

So she sat there, listening to Yuuta vent about things he had carefully kept hidden. She was a little surprised at the fact that he was unloading to someone he had just met, but she supposed he had to get it out somehow, and she seemed to be one of the rare, few people who wouldn't tell him he was talking nonsense. When he was done, they just sat there silently on the bench. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence; after a while though, the stillness was broken by a gurgling sound coming from the brown-haired boy's stomach.

Flushing faintly in embarrassment, Yuuta smiled sheepishly. "Eheh. I guess I'm getting kind of hungry. It's no surprise now that I think of it; it's around dinner time."

Akira smirked slightly at her new friend. "Do you want to get some burgers?" she asked. "I'm getting hungry as well, plus we can talk a bit more."

Yuuta agreed, so they gathered their tennis equipment and walked to the nearest fast-food restaurant. Once inside, they looked over the menu on display behind the counter, looking through their options for a moment. Yuuta went forward to order first, as he'd been there before and already had a favorite meal. A few minutes later, after her new friend had paid for his food, Akira walked forward to place her own order.

The talked and chuckled over their dinners, both having a humorous moment when they learned that they both had ordered wasabi mayonnaise on their burgers. As they both finished their meals and got out of the hard, plastic benches, Yuuta turned to Akira, looking like he wanted to say something.

"Ah… Akira?" She nodded curiously. "Can we exchange phone numbers?"

At her slightly stunned look, he hurried to explain. "Well, I don't have that many friends who are nice to talk too, and I thought that maybe you might like to have someone to talk to as well and-"

Akira cut him off with a slight smile and dug her cell-phone out of her pocket. She'd never thought she'd have to use the thing. "What's your number?" she asked quietly.

Smiling happily, Yuuta gave her his number and vice versa. They left the fast-food restaurant, before walking off together a their houses seemed to be in the same direction.

"So what school do you go to Yuuta?" Akira asked after a moment of silence. She was curious about her new friend.

"St. Rudolph." he stated. "I didn't really want to go to the same school as my older brother."

They continued to chat quietly, learning things about each other. Yuuta didn't notice that they were passing through an alleyway. Akira did, and was glancing around inconspicuously. Bad things happened in alleyways because they were out of the open. Fewer witnesses for a crime.

Her vigilance was rewarded when she was able to intercept a punch aiming towards the back of her brown-haired friend's head. The attacker was a scruffy-looking guy who looked like a high-school drop-out, and a couple of others were standing behind him. The ring-leader had a shocked scowl on his face at the fact that she had been able to stop his punch.

"Look kids, just give me what money you've got and I'll let you go, nice and easy." he sneered.

Akira raised an eyebrow, ignoring Yuuta's terrified expression, and squeezed the guy's wrist until she felt the bones straining under her grip.

"Shouldn't I be the one to let you go?" she asked, pointedly adding more pressure to her hold as she finished her question. "Now why don't you and your friends just leave before you get hurt." she said in a bored tone.

Yuuta looked at her with wide eyes as the thugs just got even angrier.

"You punk! You think you can go up against all three of us? Are you nuts?" the guy who tried to punch Yuuta yelled. He then wrenched his arm from her grasp, Akira letting him go without a fight.

The ring-leader pulled out a pocket knife, opening it up and trying to intimidate her. His lackeys copied him. Yuuta stared in shock and fear. Akira grinned.

Akira saw a flurry of movement out of the corner of her eye. Her grin widened as she saw one of the thugs running towards her, knife outstretched in a amateurish grasp. He slashed downwards towards her neck, but she grabbed his wrist and squeezed, making the knife drop from his boneless grip. Her other hand swished upwards quickly and she delivered an open-handed slap to his right temple. He dropped to the alley's ground like a sack of flour.

Still grinning slightly, she looked at them with an odd gleam in her eye. "This is the first fight I've had in a while. Why don't you try to make it worth my time, hmm?"

The other two thugs stared at her with apprehension at seeing one of their number being taken down with so little effort, but the apparent leader of the thugs straightened up with a sense of bravado.

"C'mon Haki! We can take this punk if we attack at the same time. He won't stand a chance against two of us!"

The grunt -ehem- grunted in agreement, and the two rushed at Akira clumsily. She 'tsked' to herself at their forms. They had no sense of teamwork at all.

"No no no! You aren't doing it right!" she exclaimed as she dodged a swipe of the thug's pocket-knife. "You're supposed to hold a knife like this!" she demonstrated by scooping up the knife she had gotten the earlier thug to drop and holding it differently.

"You have absolutely no teamwork either! How pitiful!" she said when, as she dodged another hit, one of the thugs hit the other one on accident. Crouching downwards as they stumbled, she jabbed the pocket-knife she had swiped into one of the thug's heels. It cut through his shoe and he fell to the ground, howling in pain as it pierced his foot, dropping his weapon to hold his grasp at his foot.

"That's another mistake!" she cried in amusement. "Never ever drop your weapon! You guys have no idea how to fight!" she said, kicking the crying thug in the head, making him lose consciousness.

The only one left standing now was the leader of the little posse of brutes, and he was looking a bit frantic. "No way! You couldn't have beaten us all! You're just a scrawny little punk!" and with that, he charged recklessly towards her, but tripped on a beer can in the way. Akira, not expecting that, narrowed her eyes against the pain as the knife sliced towards her left shoulder, cutting into her shirt and leaving a thin line of blood on her skin.

'Another scar! And from this stupid jerk!' Akira's eyes widened in rage and adrenaline, and she shot forward, slamming her knee right between the guy's legs. He had no time to dodge, having just regained his balance, so he sunk to the ground, whimpering in pain as he clutched himself. Yuuta gave the obligatory wince of a male in the same area.

Akira turned around, the rage leaving her quickly as her usual personality kicked, wanting to make sure that her new friend was okay.

"You alright Yuuta-kun?" she asked, paying no mind to her mangled shirt.

Yuuta just stared at her in shock. There were many thought going through his head at that point, but the one thing that made its way out of his mouth was, "Wha..? But… How…? You're a girl?!"

Akira blinked at him through her bangs, before looking down at her shirt. Ah. That explained things. Her bra was showing through the rip.

"Yes, I'm a girl." she answered patiently. She didn't understand why people were so surprised when they found that out. Untying her zip-up sweatshirt from her waist, she slipped it on over her ripped shirt. She was thankful that it didn't get cut. It was her favorite sweater.

"Oh." was all he said. After a few minutes of contemplation, he spoke up again. "Where did you learn to fight like that?" he asked.

"From various teachers. Not in Japan." she said vaguely.

He didn't press her, still looking a bit pasty from the near-mugging, and they continued walking in relative silence. By the time their paths diverged, he had regained a bit of color, and he offered a slightly more upbeat, "Bye." before walking towards his home.

Akira smiled slightly as she walked towards her home. She had actually made a friend of her own volition. Ryoma didn't really count because she had been forced to get along with him or the winter break would have been torturous. Plus she actually had a reason to use her cell-phone. Once again, she didn't really have to with Ryoma because he was her neighbor.

She enjoyed the half-hour long walk back to her home, ignoring the stinging from her injured shoulder. The sun was just setting, turning the heavens a dusky purple-orange, and she could see the stars coming out on the darker side of the sky. She could detect small hints of a cherry blossom scent from the trees scattered throughout the vegetated patches of the city. All in all, it was a beautiful ending for her first day of school.

Unlocking the front door, she slipped inside of her house, lazily making her way to the 'Reading Room' as she had dubbed it. It was a medium-sized room, but had a cozy feel. There was a table and a desk and a few bookshelves filled with mysteries and fantasies. Her favorite piece in the room was a large, cushy, overstuffed chair that reminded her of the ones in the Gryffindor common room. It was even in front of a fireplace. Except it was a nice shade of green instead of eye-bleeding red. She had always liked the Slytherin green and silver better than red and gold.

Regretfully, she had other things to do before she could sink into the cushy chair and read a good book. Walking over to her desk, she sat in the not-so-cushy desk chair and reached downwards towards the lower-left drawer. Opening it, she pulled out a First Aid kit that she kept there.

She pealed off her sweater and shirt, looking down at her shoulder, evaluating how serious the injury was. Thankfully, after a few minutes, she determined that it wasn't anything too bad, but just to stay on the more cautious side of things, she grabbed some antiseptic from the First Aid kit.

She spread the anti-bacterial cream onto the wound, biting her lips slightly at the stinging sensation that it caused. Then, grabbing a roll of white bandages from the kit, she proceeded to wrap her shoulder carefully. She moved her shoulder experimentally, checking its movement range. She let out a small noise of satisfaction when she found that she could move just fine in all directions, just with a bit of pain to go with the movement.

It wouldn't effect her tennis much, considering she had an abnormally high pain tolerance.

Flopping into her cushy green chair, she grabbed her book off of the small table situated next to it.

She frowned slightly as she noticed how few pages were left to her psychological thriller. She'd have to find a bookstore sometime soon. When she was exploring the district before school started, she had found one, but it didn't have a good selection of books. She'd probably have to go to another district to find a good bookshop.

She put it on her mental to-do-list and settled down for a nice reading session. After a while though, she felt herself getting a little drowsy. So, before she could fall asleep, she reluctantly stood from her chair, making sure to mark her spot in her book, and shuffled her way to her bedroom down the hall.

She rummaged around in her magic wardrobe for a minute or two, blindly groping into its depths for her comfy pajamas. Once they were found, she slipped into them, careful not to jostle her shoulder. After that, she slipped right into her bed, curling up on top of the springy mattress and pulling the thick comforter up to her chin.

Her last thought before she fell asleep was, 'Tomorrow, I'll get to see what kind of people are in Seigaku's tennis club.'


	7. Chapter 7

Hahaha… Don't kill me. Please? I kinda ran out of steam after the first six chapters, so it took me a while to motivate myself enough to write this one, eheh. Well, now here it is. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: By the way, I don't own anything from Prince of Tennis nor Harry Potter. Otherwise I wouldn't be writing fan fiction for them.

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Moving Forward ch 7

The next day, she thankfully did not wake up late again. Instead, she actually had time to take a shower and eat a proper breakfast before setting out for school. Double-checking to see if she had all of her things, she made sure to lock the door behind her as she stepped out of the house. Akira quickly made her way down the stairs, stopping briefly at the bottom to admire the cherry blossoms floating on the breeze from the trees surrounding her house. She shook herself out of it after a few seconds and made her way down the sidewalk towards Seigaku.

After a few minutes of walking, she saw Ryoma a few yards ahead of her. She noted with a small amount of amusement that he was just a hair away from sleepwalking. She sped up a little bit, and gently grasped his arm just in time to stop him from crashing into a telephone pole.

Ryoma blearily opened his eyes to squint at her for a moment, before continuing to walk blindly along the sidewalk. Akira refrained from rolling her eyes and reached backwards into her backpack to pull out her thriller book. She gave a small frown when she realized she would probably finish it before she got to school.

'Either that, or in her homeroom with the wussy teacher who's probably too timid to stop any of the kids from doing anything.' she thought somewhat contemptuously as she tugged on Ryoma's arm again to move him out of the way of a pedestrian.

They made their way to the school's entrance, Akira pulling Ryoma along behind her so that he wouldn't wander off and fall asleep on the grounds. Soon, they were inside their first classroom of the day. Ryoma immediately collapsed into the nearest chair, his head thumping onto the desktop. Akira passively sat next to him, never veering her attention from her book.

Before the bell rang, she was turning the last page of her book.

'Great. Now I need something to do during homeroom.' she thought with mild annoyance as students started to filter into the classroom. 'I wish I could just bring a few magical books, but seeing as this is a muggle school…'

So, with nothing better to do, she reached into her backpack and pulled out her Chemistry textbook and set about reading that instead. Some parts were interesting, and she wrote down a few different chemicals that she may want to experiment with along with their basic effects. Her mind began to wander as her brain went into 'Potions Master mode' as she mentally called it, in which her brain was caught up on the theoretical concoction and how it would react to different ingredients.

She was just thinking over how a few muggle chemicals would react to some Wizarding Potion's ingredients, when the bell rang yet again and all the freshmen rushed out the door, practically trampling the timid homeroom teacher. Akira reluctantly pulled her mind away from Chemistry and poked Ryoma awake from where he was snoring on the desk next to her, before heading to her next class.

The day went by in a listless manner yet again. Akira paid less attention than she did the day before, her mind often wandering towards Chemistry or tennis. She was about to resign herself to another day of boredom until Chemistry, when Psychology class happened.

Once again, she had gotten to the classroom before anyone else and, after having turned in the assigned homework for the previous day, was sitting in a chair next to the windows. Akira stared out the window in boredom, absently fiddling with the sleeve of the jacket that was part of the boys' uniform. She was just about to pull out her chemistry textbook again, when someone else walked into the room. Her head turned towards the noise of the door opening and closing as the new person walked into the room.

She studied the newcomer thoughtfully. He was slightly feminine looking, with shaggy light-brown hair that hung around his face. He had on a placid smile, and his eyes were squinted shut, so she couldn't tell his eye color. The most important fact about him though, was the fact that he wasn't there the day before, and was therefore most likely a tennis regular. Her theory was only backed up by the fact that she remembered seeing him over the summer in a Seigaku tennis jersey with the others.

'I wonder why he's taking Psychology.' she thought absently, before turning back to her backpack and taking out her chemistry textbook as she had wanted to do a few minutes earlier. A few seconds later, she was completely absorbed in the book, therefore, she didn't notice curious eyes watching her, nor the brown-haired boy sitting down at the desk next to hers.

She was perfectly content to ignore him for the duration of the class, but it seemed that he had other plans.

"Hello. I'm Fuji Syusuke, I'm a third-year." he said, smiling with his eyes shut all the while.

Akira reluctantly tore her gaze from the chemistry book and looked at him a bit closer. Fuji? So this was probably her new friend's older brother. The 'Tensai'. "My name is Kitamori Akira, I'm a first-year. It's nice to meet you Fuji-senpai. "

"Oh, so you are a freshman!" Fuji said cheerily. "This class is usually only taken by second and third-years. I thought you looked a little short to be a second-year."

Akira blinked, her head tilting slightly as she looked at her desk neighbor. Didn't he know that that could be taken as an insult? She didn't really care one way or another. She knew she was a bit vertically challenged. So she just replied, "The class seemed interesting enough."

"Yes, it is." Fuji agreed. "I'm just a bit surprised that a freshman had good enough grades to take it." he said.

Akira gave a noncommittal 'hmm' noise, her attention wavering back to her chemistry textbook. She wasn't quite processing the words on the page though. Her thoughts had drifted to her desk neighbor. The elder Fuji didn't really seem to have many similarities with Yuuta, except perhaps hair color. Perhaps that's why her friend sounded so frustrated when speaking of him? Once again, she didn't notice, or ignored the eyes examining her.

* * *

When Fuji Syusuke walked into school that morning, he had not anticipated finding something that captured his interest. He was actually feeling a bit put-off about the fact that school was starting again. He didn't really want to have to start dealing with the awed students and teachers who wanted to gawk at the 'tensai' of Seigaku.

The day had actually been a bit boring, as the only thing he had to look forward to after a day of fan girls and sucking-up teachers was tennis practice; even then he would have to deal with the newbie freshman wanting to join the club.

But then he had walked into his Psychology class early, and been surprised at the site of someone already inside the room; a rather small person in the boys' uniform, who was turned around in his seat, reaching for his backpack hanging off the back of his chair. Then the boy had looked up from his bent over position over the bag, hearing him open the door, and Syusuke had been hard pressed not to open his eyes in mild surprise and interest.

The boy had the brightest green eyes that he had ever seen, only emphasized by the fact that they were almost covered by shaggy black hair. The small boy had then scrutinized him for a moment, making him feel a bit exposed, and looked away a moment later, back to rummaging in his backpack for whatever he had been looking for.

Syusuke watched the petite boy curiously as he pulled out a thick textbook - the title could not be seen from his current view point - and promptly lost himself to the book. He was rather interested in the short student, for the moment at least, having caught the analytical look in his eyes as the boy had inspected him. So, he promptly took the seat next to him, hoping to get him to talk before class started.

After a few seconds of contemplating how to start a conversation, Fuji eventually decided on simply introducing himself.

"Hello. I'm Fuji Syusuke, I'm a third-year." he said with his trademark smile.

When the boy looked up reluctantly from his book, Fuji was surprised to see a small spark of recognition in his classmate's eyes. He was further shocked when, upon recognizing him, instead of mentioning his status as a 'tensai', the boy simply introduced himself and stated his year group. He even sounded a little bored, despite his politeness.

"Oh, so you are a freshman!" Fuji continued onward, ignoring the fact that the boy, newly identified as Akira, didn't seem particularly keen on furthering the conversation. "This class is usually only taken by second and third-years. I thought you looked a little short to be a second-year." he finished slyly, testing the waters of his desk-neighbor's temperament with his comment.

Akira just tilted his head, reminding Fuji slightly of a puppy that he had seen once in a box in front of a supermarket. "The class seemed interesting enough." the smaller boy replied apathetically.

"Yes, it is." Fuji agreed all too happily. "I'm just a bit surprised that a freshman had good enough grades to take it." he continued blithely, not caring that his statement could, yet again, be taken the wrong way.

His neighbor seemed to think that the conversation was over at that point, giving a small 'hmm'-ing noise and turning back to his thick textbook, his eyes clouding over slightly as his attention was absorbed again.

Fuji was tempted to pout at his new interest's dismissal of him. Most people never ignored him, either scared or awed of him in some way; except the rare few people that he considered friends, but even they still paid attention to him, lest he get in the mood for embarrassment or blackmail. He was all the more curious now because of his object of observation's atypical behavior.

So, he leaned over the gap between their desks and attempted to see what exactly held the boy's attention so thoroughly. His eyes opened slightly in shock as he saw that his freshman classmate was reading near the farther back, and consequently, more complicated, sections of an advanced chemistry textbook.

"Saa… Do you take Chemistry as well, Kitamori-kun?" he asked curiously.

Akira reluctantly turned away from the page he was reading yet again. "Aa." she said; and, hoping to fend off more comments and questions, continued, "It's my favorite subject."

"Wow. A smart freshman is in the school." Fuji said teasingly. He was still a bit surprised at the fact that Akira was actually taking two advanced classes. It made him all the more interested in the boy. Fuji would have continued the conversation, but the door to the classroom opened, and the teacher walked in.

Akira sat up a bit more in her chair so that she could put away her textbook. Sighing slightly, she leaned forward, her elbows resting on her desk and her hand holding up her chin. Even though she probably knew more about psychology than the teacher, she wanted to pay attention. You never knew when you'd find a nice tidbit hidden in the psycho-babble.

The teacher carelessly slammed down a briefcase on the table, making most of the class jump since they weren't paying attention. He was a tall, sturdily-built man with strong features and short gray hair in a buzz cut. He gave the students a wicked grin as they all whipped towards the source of the noise.

"Glad to know you're actually paying attention." He said harshly, the grin showing off many of his teeth. "Roll-call starts now."

To be honest with herself, Akira liked the man. He reminded her of Mad-Eye Moody, except without the magical eyeball. His name was Hachigako Garo and he scared the crap out of most of the class, but if you actually worked at the subject and got good results, he wasn't as bad. If he caught you slacking or goofing off though, he would show you why he had the reputation as the 'Demon Hachigako' among the students of Seigaku.

Once finished checking that the entire class was present, Hachigako started talking again. "Now as I told you yesterday, unless you are too dim-witted to remember, today you will all be partnering up with another student. These partnerships will last for the entire school year, so be careful when you choose, because I won't let you change them." Hachigako said sharply, immediately dissipating any complaints the class may have had with the shark-like glint in his eyes, just daring them to contradict him. "The third-years in this class will be able to pick their partners first, followed by the second-years. As for who goes first within each grade, those with the highest entrance scores will be allowed to go first. After all, I'm sure that the few smart kids in this class deserve the privilege more than the dunces. If you are picked by someone you'd rather not work with, suck it up. It's your fault for having poorer grades."

Akira blinked for a moment or two, ignoring the squealing of some fan girls who had only signed up for Psychology because the 'tensai' was taking it. She raised her hand in the air quietly, waiting for the teacher to notice.

His sharp eyes zeroed in on her raised hand. "Yeah Kitamori? Somethin' wrong with that?" he asked clearly, sitting down at his desk as he did so.

Akira ignored the sharp tone of voice that he used, as it was nothing compared to Snape's, and continued with what she was going to say, also taking no mind of the stares she was garnering from her peers. "No Hachigako-sensei. I am simply curious as to what position I would be in, considering I am neither a second-year nor a third-year." she said with a hint of wryness.

"Ah yeah." Hachigako looked at her contemplatively while leaning back in his chair. "You're that freshman who signed up for Psychology and Chemistry, aren't you?" He thought for few seconds, ignoring the whisperings of his class at the fact that there was a freshman among them. "Eh. You can be in with the second-years. You probably outscored 'em all anyway." he said, scratching his stubbly chin.

Akira ignored the sudden glares from many of the second-years in the room.

"Alright kiddies, top dog of the third-years is Fuji Syusuke." Hachigako said in a uninterested manner. "Go ahead."

Fuji stood with his customary smile, disregarding the attentive stares of his fan girls with the ease of practice. "I would like to be partnered with Kitamori Akira." he said pleasantly.

Akira blinked dully in slight surprise as almost the entire female population of the classroom started to wail in disappointment. Once again, she was glad that people seemed to see her as a boy, or she was sure that she would be mauled for trying to steal their 'Syusuke-kun'. She vaguely wondered why the so-called 'tensai' would pick the only freshman in the room as his partner. Was he really that curious about her?

After Hachigako shut the fangirls up, the rest of the class time went by quickly. Soon, the bell rang, and most of the class stampeded out the door in a race to the cafeteria for lunch.

Akira grabbed her backpack from where it was hanging on the back of her chair and slung it onto her right shoulder, as she didn't want to aggravate the wound on her left shoulder. Mentally cussing high-school drop-outs who feel the need to mug people, she didn't notice her new acquaintance from her previous class walking up behind her, nor the other person walking rather quickly through the hall.

"Kitamori-kun!" she heard a familiar voice call. She tried to turn around, but as she did so, someone ran straight into her.

Akira let out a grunt of pain as she was shoved into a locker. Her left shoulder hit the unforgiving metal, and her bag fell to the floor, the strap having been jerked off of her good shoulder by the force of the fall. She looked to see who had shoved her with an angry light in her eyes. She saw a vaguely familiar freshman with a unibrow and Fuji, the one who had been calling her name. The boy with the unfortunate facial hair was babbling out apologies, while the 'tensai' was actually being useful and picking up her bag for her.

"Ah! I'm so sorry for bumping into you Sempai! I wasn't watching where I was going, and I was careless and-" the boy's babbling came to an abrupt stop as Akira stood and gave him an exceptionally evil look through her bangs.

"Yes. You were careless. Leave." she said, keeping all traces or irritation from her voice, and ignoring his reference to her as an upperclassman. The boy with the unibrow all to gladly ran down the hall.

Akira grabbed her injured shoulder with her right hand, waiting patiently for the throbbing to go down and trying to calm her anger.

"Saa… Are you alright?" she heard Fuji's voice from behind her.

She turned to him, "I'm fine." she said, her tone slightly curt with carefully restrained annoyance and pain. "Thank you for grabbing my bag." she finished as politely as she could at the moment, before taking it from him and situating it into a comfortable position on her right shoulder again.

"Your shoulder shouldn't be that painful from just hitting the locker." Fuji said, slight concern in his voice as he watched her hold her injured shoulder. He didn't particularly like to see people hurt. Maybe victims to a few harmless pranks, but never genuinely injured.

"Previous wound." she said calmly. She walked up to her locker, unlocking it efficiently and pulling out the bento that Rinko had thoughtfully made for her, along with a large thermos of jasmine tea. She had a very nice neighbor, she mused thoughtfully. Very motherly.

Fuji didn't seem particularly satisfied with that answer, not that many could tell with his perpetual smile, and continued looking at her in interest. "Saa… Since it's lunch time, I was hoping that we could eat together. It would give us a chance to know each other better, which would be a good idea considering we're partners in Psychology for the rest of the year." he said. There was also the unsaid fact that he thought his new underclassman was interesting, especially after seeing the tennis bag in his fellow student's locker,

Akira considered him with a blank expression on her face, still absently rubbing her injured shoulder with her free hand (she was holding her lunch in her left hand). She didn't really have a reason to say no to him, and she supposed it would be better to get along with him than possibly offend him by refusing his offer. He was right in the fact that they'd be stuck with each other for the school year. Besides, she was somewhat curious about him after hearing from him from his little brother.

So, she shrugged and answered in the affirmative, and his smile grew a little wider.

"Good. I'll have to introduce you to my friend as well. He's bringing my lunch along with his, and will be eating with us." he said serenely, before walking in the direction which she presumed would lead to the place on the school grounds they would be eating at.

They soon arrived at small batch of cherry trees near the tennis courts. It was a rather warm day for spring, and so they could be outside with no problems. The trees were blooming as well, scattering delicate pink petals whenever a small breeze came through.

Akira carefully took a seat near the base of a tree, careful not to jostle her shoulder, as she didn't really want to be in any more pain than necessary. She then looked up at her luncheon companion, who was in a similar position against a different tree, wondering if he was going to initiate conversation or just observe her through his squinty eyes.

He did.

"Saa… It's nice out today. It makes me want to take some pictures." he said peacefully as he observed the cherry blossoms.

Akira set her lunch down next to her on the ground, choosing to wait until Fuji's friend arrived to eat. "You like photography?" she asked politely, resisting the urge to take out her Chemistry book. It would be rude to start reading when she had company; however unwilling she might be to have it or not.

Her companion's smile widened slightly at the fact that she actually responded to him. "Yes, it is one of my hobbies, along with tennis." he said slyly. "You play as well, right? I couldn't help but see the tennis bag inside your locker."

Akira tilted her head to the side slightly, again reminding Fuji of a puppy. "Yes, I play as well."

"Are you any good?" he asked cheerfully. "I haven't seen you around here before." he said.

"I avoid playing in any kind of tournament. I don't really like attention. There's also the fact that I just moved here a couple of months ago." Akira replied. "You're a regular here, are you not?" she bluntly, phrasing it more like a statement than a question.

"Oh? How'd you know?" Fuji asked curiously with slight amusement as he shifted slightly against his tree.

"You weren't here yesterday, and I know that the regulars were on a playing tour." she said blandly as she swatted a few cherry blossom petals out of her messy hair.

"Saa… you're not a Seigaku Tennis Club fanatic are you?" Fuji asked teasingly. "Not many freshmen would know that."

Akira gave him a blank stare, ignoring the petals once again collecting atop her head. "My Chemistry teacher told me when there was an uneven amount of people in class." she deadpanned. "I worked alone and asked if I would be partnered with anyone, so she told me that one of the students was absent because he was a tennis regular."

"Oh?" Fuji asked, intrigued. "That means you'll be Inui's partner in Chemistry. He makes excellent juice." he said in an amused tone.

Akira raised her eyebrow, and was about to ask why he would mention juice, when she heard lively footsteps bounding their way.

"Fujiko!" an upbeat voice practically sang. "I got you the lunch with wasabi sushi from the cafeteria, nyaa!"

Akira observed the newcomer as a bento was shoved under Fuji's ever-smiling face. He had dark red hair that flipped up at the sides and a bandage on his good-humored face. If she was correct in her remembrance, he was also one of the tennis regulars that she had seen over the summer. She supposed it made sense for them to be friends since they were in the same club. Upon analyzing him further, she found that he had a light, flexible build that seemed to mesh well with his bouncy personality.

"I don't see why you like that stuff so much, Fujiko!" the boy pouted slightly. "The last time I had any, it burned my nose, nyaa!"

Akira tilted her head absentmindedly, wondering why the newcomer kept making cat noises.

"Everyone has different taste buds, Eiji-kun. I happen to have ones that like wasabi." Fuji said in his easy-going manner. "Besides that, let me introduce you to one of our new kohai. This is Kitamori Akira, and he's partnered with me in Psychology." he motioned towards Akira.

Akira had no time to wonder why Fuji had referred to her as a 'he', before her vision was abruptly blocked by Eiji's face.

"Wow! You're in Psychology when you're only a first-year? You must be really smart!" he said happily. Seeming to remember his manners, he paused for a moment before continuing, "Oh yeah, my name is Kikumaru Eiji. I'm in the same class as Fujiko, nyaa."

Akira stared at her upperclassman who apparently had no concept of personal space while Fuji looked on in amusement.

"He's also in the Chemistry class, Eiji-kun." Fuji added in, before putting a piece of sushi in his mouth and humming happily at the taste.

"You really _are _smart!" Eiji exclaimed cheerily as he plopped onto the ground next to Fuji and opened up his own bento. "You're almost like a chibi-tensai, nyaa!"

At that point, Akira decided to be polite and then eat her own lunch instead of trying to contemplate the oddities of her new acquaintances.

"It's nice to meet you Kikumaru-sempai." she said, before unscrewing the cap of her thermos to take a sip of her jasmine tea.

Eiji pouted slightly. "Hey, you don't have to call me sempai! Call me Eiji-kun, or a nickname!"

Akira blinked at him, before carefully putting the cap back on her thermos. Her head tilted subconsciously again, and she decided that since he had asked, it wouldn't be impolite.

"Neko-chan (A/N: Means 'cat')." she stated.

Blink. Blinkblink.

"Awww! You're so cute!", was all the warning she had before she felt a pair of arms happily squeezing her in a vice grip. Eiji had pushed aside his lunch and launched himself across the distance between them so he could tackle-hug her.

'At least now I know that he has extreme jumping capabilities along with his flexibility.' Akira thought distractedly as she struggled to breath.

"Would...you mind…" she managed to wheeze. "Getting…off?"

"Since you gave me a nickname, I'll give you one!" Eiji exclaimed cheerily, moving to hold her at an arm's length. He stared at her unblinkingly for a minute or so, while Fuji pretended not to laugh in the background and almost choked on his sushi.

"I know! I've got the perfect nickname!" Eiji declared after a few minutes of thinking.

Akira listened with a mild sense of dread, hoping that her new label wouldn't be too demeaning.

"Midori-chan (A/N: Means 'green')!" he chirped.

'Green?' she thought dully. 'Well, it's not as bad as it could be.'

"Because your eyes are so pretty! I've never seen someone with eyes that shade of green!" Eiji continued blithely.

"They are a rather remarkable shade of green Kitamori-kun." Fuji said with a hint of amusement at his friend's antics.

Akira raised an eyebrow, but soon went back to her lunch with Eiji still hovering around her.

Conversation soon started up again as they ate.

"So, are you planning to join the tennis club, Kitamori-kun?" Fuji asked curiously.

"I am planning on it. My neighbor is joining it also, and I decided to join with him since I enjoy tennis as well." Akira said thoughtfully after finishing a mouthful of rice.

"Midori-chan plays tennis as well, nyaa?" Eiji asked gleefully. "It will be fun!" he said. "I can show you my super acrobatic tennis style!"

Akira nodded, half indulging him and half indulging her own curiosity and need to know others' abilities.

It was at that point in time that the bell rang.

"See you at tennis practice, Midori-chan!" Eiji chirped as he vaulted nimbly off of the ground.

Fuji, after brushing a few cherry blossom petals out of his hair and smoothing down his uniform, also offered his goodbye. "Have fun in Chemistry class, Kitamori-kun. I'm sure if you really love the subject, and are somewhat proficient in it, then you'll get along with Inui just fine." he assured her, before letting himself get pulled away to his next class by his catlike friend.

Akira stared after them for a moment or two, before she stowed away the bento box and thermos into her backpack and walked into the school. She was surprised that she had found friends so quickly in the school. It was nice to not have to live up to any preconceived expectations.

'I wonder what kind of person this 'Inui' is.' she thought to herself as she opened the door to her Chemistry class.


	8. Chapter 8

Sorry for the wait everybody! My brain kind of drifted out of Prince of Tennis mode, and started to work on other things without my consent. I appreciate all of the reviews I've been getting, and I hope you all enjoy the newest chapter of Moving Forward!

Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis, or Harry Potter. If I did, the main characters would be girls because I'm not as comfortable writing from a boy's perspective.

* * *

Moving Forward ch 8

Akira's first impression of Inui Sadaharu was that he was tall; it may have been because she was relatively short for her age (physically and mentally), but he towered over her. She imagined that they looked a bit ridiculous sitting next to each other at the same table what with their contrasting heights.

Her second impression was that he gave off the vibe of a mad scientist. He had black rectangular glasses with thick lenses that hid any view of his eyes, and a notebook that he was constantly scribbling down various observations in.

When she had walked into the classroom, about half-an-hour before the Chemistry class started, he had been halfway through an experiment of some sort. From what she could tell, he must have started before the lunch break was even over. Akira couldn't decide if she was happy about having a partner dedicated to the subject the class was teaching, or put-off by the sinister gleaming of his glasses as he overlooked his project. She decided to ignore any off-setting qualities of the boy, because she was stuck with him for the rest of the year whether she liked it or not.

So, she had walked into the classroom, and taken a seat next to the boy, seeing as that was the seat that she was assigned to permanently after having occupied it the day before. She had then, after setting down her book bag, taken out her Chemistry textbook and started to read, occasionally glancing up at the progress of her seat-mate's concoction as he periodically added new ingredients. She absently noted that all of the components were edible, though probably not pleasing to most people's taste buds.

Akira had just finished a particularly interesting chapter of her text, when she heard a sizzling sound. Her head snapped up, recognizing the sound from many a Potion's class spent with Neville Longbottom (who, despite his remarkable talent with Herbology, regularly exploded cauldrons), and many of her own experimentations, to see Inui's experiment boiling and fizzing sporadically. There was a surprised expression on the boy's face, only partially hidden by his thick glasses.

Akira quickly moved into action, dropping her book to the floor and yanking the boy underneath the table. She was not a moment too soon, as not only a second later, the concoction violently exploded, splattering the burning substance and shards of glass across the classroom.

There was a moment of silence as the ringing faded from their ears, before Akira sighed slightly and crawled out from underneath the table. She stayed kneeling next to her book, checking to make sure there was no damage to the thick text. After a few moments she released a small breath of relief when she saw there was no harm done, and then turned around to offer Inui a hand.

"Are you alright?" she asked plainly.

"Yes, I am fine." he said as he examined her hand, before gingerly taking it and standing up. He immediately bent down towards his book bag and pulled out a notebook, no doubt writing down his observations on his recent experiment. After a few seconds of scribbling, he looked up again. "Who are you?" he asked curiously .

"Kitamori Akira." she introduced herself. Shoving her textbook back into her book bag, she then looked around the room. "Perhaps we should clean up the mess before the teacher arrives?" she said, ignoring the boy's somewhat surprised expression at the fact that she included herself.

"Ah, yes. I am Inui Sadaharu. Thank you for your assistance." he said, almost hesitantly as they both stood and carefully picked their way around the glass on the ground. He stopped briefly to take a key off of a hook on the wall, labeled 'Janitor's Closet. You make a mess, you clean it up', no doubt put there by their teacher for the students who liked to experiment. They walked briskly down the hallway towards the janitor's closet, Akira slightly behind Inui since she didn't really know where the janitor's closet was.

Inui quietly opened the door to the closet after unlocking it and grabbed a mop and bucket, while Akira took a broom and a dustpan. Once back in the Chemistry classroom, Inui started to soak up the liquid from the exploded juice, and Akira swept up the shards of glass still scattered around on the floor.

Akira's mind wandered as she cleaned the floor, automatically going through the motions of sweeping; a result of cleaning for the Dursley's for most of her life. Her brow furrowed slightly as she saw a piece of glass that had somehow gotten stuck between a cabinet and the corner of the wall. Leaning the broom she was holding up against the wall and setting down the dustpan, she crouched down and shoved her hand into the narrow opening between the cabinet and the corner of the classroom.

She swore in Parseltongue, though to anyone else it would just sound like a slight hiss, as she cut her fingers on the shard of glass. Adjusting her grip so she was no longer clutching the sharp edges, she finished retrieving the shattered segment of the beaker, and placed it on the dustpan, before checking her hand.

The cuts weren't too deep, but they were bleeding quite a bit, and they hurt almost more than they would have if they were more serious. She frowned slightly as her left shoulder throbbed again. Why did she seem to be attracting injuries? It was getting a bit annoying; like someone somewhere decided that, instead of ridiculous adventures and getting hunted by dark wizards, she'd just constantly gain injuries from more mundane things.

Plus there was a fact that the cuts were on her right hand, and with her injured shoulder, it meant that neither arm was at one hundred percent.

So she picked up the dustpan with her left hand, tilting her sliced hand carefully so that no blood would drip on the ground, and walked over to the heavy-duty trash can on the back of the classroom. There was a small clinking noise as the shards of the shattered beaker tumbled into the waste receptacle. She turned again, and walked toward Inui.

When she got close enough, she awkwardly reached up (and up and up) to tap him on the shoulder with the part of her right hand that wasn't gushing blood, seeing as she was still holding a dustpan in her left hand. When he turned around, she spoke up.

"Do you know if they keep any bandages in here?" she asked in a considerably calm voice, despite the blood now threatening to drip down her wrist.

From what little of Inui's eyes she could see, she could tell that they were widened, but despite his shock, he quickly moved to the back of the classroom and toward the cabinet. Opening it hastily, he grabbed a box of bandages and returned to his previous position.

"Here, let me help you. You will not be able to bandage your injury sufficiently with only one hand to work with." he said with slight concern.

Akira blinked slightly in surprise. She didn't think he'd offer to help. She was just going to take them into the bathroom and use a bit of magic to make sure the wraps were on properly. She could heal it instead, but Inui could have seen her before she left the room, and she didn't want to attract any attention. Especially not from a tennis regular, who'd she have frequent contact with once she joined the tennis club. Thus, she had to keep the injuries on her shoulder and hand.

Inui was surprisingly efficient with wrapping injuries. Akira supposed it came with the gaming territory; at least to people like him. He seemed like a person who would want to be prepared for any circumstances, and that included sports injuries.

Akira examined her fully bandaged hand. It actually looked a bit like one of those fingerless gloves she saw a few punk-ish kids wearing when she was exploring Japan. "Thank-you, Inui-san." she said, wiggling her fingers slightly to test their dexterity with the bandages on. She might be able to still play with this hand, as long as she ignored the stinging and throbbing. It would probably be harder to play with her left hand because her shoulder was painful as well, and would have a more limited range of movement.

"You are welcome Kitamori-san." he said, reaching up to adjust his square glasses. "And I thank you, yet again, for helping me to clean the classroom. I probably wouldn't have finished in time for class without your assistance."

Akira nodded to the much taller boy, not feeling the need to verbalize her response, before returning to her seat and reading her Chemistry book again. Inui put away the remaining equipment from his Juice-making, and took his own seat next to her, setting his notebook on the desk in front of him.

Now, normally, Akira would probably never even bother talking to someone else unless absolutely necessary. However, with the subject she wanted to discuss being something she had an extremely large interest in, (Chemistry), her curiosity overcame her anti-socialism.

"Inui-senpai?" she spoke up quietly. The boy stopped scribbling in his notebook for a moment and adjusted his glasses as turned to face her. "What exactly were you trying to create?" she asked inquisitively.

The boy's glasses glinted creepily in the fluorescent lighting of the classroom.

Akira moved through the middle school, absentmindedly dodging the straggling students clogging the hallways like hair in a drain. Fuji had been correct in his assumption that she would get along with Inui. The boy had many interesting theories on the subject of Chemistry, and seemed to have a respectable… er, respect for explosions. What most interested her though, were the fact that his special Juices were used as motivation for the poor, unfortunate souls in the tennis club. He mixed some of the most foul ingredients he could get his hands on without the concoction turning into something lethal.

Thankfully, she was a poor, unfortunate soul with odd taste buds and a built-up tolerance for nasty-tasting brews because of all the potions she'd been force to down during her multiple stays in the Hogwarts Hospital Wing. Call her sadistic, but she was looking forward to seeing Ryoma have to drink some Juice; he wouldn't be able to win all of the training exercises, after all.

After grabbing her tennis bag from her locker, she once again snuck into the girls' locker room to change. Today, she wore a sleeveless shirt, so she wouldn't have to add another layer over her bandaged shoulder. She absently rotated her left shoulder, testing its movement range as she walked, barefoot, toward the tennis courts.

'It still hurts, but I can deal with it.' she thought matter-of-factly as she stepped lightly over a few rocks on the pavement. 'I should probably play with my left hand. There's no need to aggravate the cuts on my other hand if I can avoid it. If it comes down to it, I can always send a Numbing Charm toward my shoulder. I just wish there were no witnesses so I could just heal them.' she finished her musings with slight annoyance.

Once she arrived at the tennis courts, she saw that Ryoma was already there, resolutely ignoring the same uni-browed kid that tailed him the day before and rammed her into a locker. Walking toward him, she nonchalantly dropped her bag and sat next to him on the ground.

"Hey Ryoma-kun." she said in a bored manner, patting him on the head in a habitual greeting before pulling her socks and shoes to herself.

He grunted in return, making her smirk at his anti-social response.

The uni-browed boy continued to blather on, completely oblivious to the facts that there was another person there, and that Ryoma was completely ignoring him.

"…I thought it was weird that you beat that senpai, Momoshiro, but he was only using half his strength because he had a twisted ankle." he then glanced at Ryoma, and asked in an irked tone, "Hey! Are you even listening to me?"

"Not really." Ryoma replied in an uninterested voice as he finished tying his shoe.

Uni-brow scowled a bit, before continuing his litany in a slightly condescending manner.

"Of course there's no way you could have played evenly with that senpai. The level at Seigaku is just that high! I mean look at these guys!" he gestured toward a few second-years playing tennis; only slightly above average, Akira noted. "They aren't even regulars, and look how good they are!"

Akira almost rolled her eyes, but instead continued to steadily tie her shoelaces.

"There's a reason Seigaku is so strong! It's because they have a Ranking Tournament once a month. They battle it out for the regular spots! Didn't you know?" he asked in a smug tone.

Another first-year, who actually had been listening spoke up. "Wow, you really know a lot, huh? You're great!"

'And that wasn't even sarcastic.' Akira thought dryly as she smoothly got to her feet and followed Ryoma away from the Ego-brow.

She was about to get her Chemistry textbook out again while they waited for the regulars to arrive, when yet another second-year walked up behind them.

"Are either of you 'The Great First-year'?" he asked with barely concealed hostility.

Akira raised her eyebrow, and shared a look with her neighbor. Then they both shrugged, shook their heads, and pointed over their shoulders back at the Uni-browed boy.

"Hmph. So that's him." the second-year said with slight disdain. "How obvious. He's the only one wearing a weird shirt and jumping around." and then walked off in that direction.

Akira smirked slightly as the second-year, Arai, dug into the annoying Uni-brow. She did raise her eyebrow when he said that the only thing the first-years would be doing would be picking up tennis balls and endurance training.

However, he was cut off from threatening the first-year when the regulars arrived at the courts.

Akira recognized Kikumaru and Fuji, as well as Inui. There were a two others, but she couldn't put a name to them. The ones she didn't recognize both had black hair, but one looked distinctly good-natured and had a bowl cut, while the other had a plain hair cut and a scowl on his face.

All of the first years bowed and shouted, "It's nice to meet you!" Well, all of them except Akira and Ryoma.

The guy with the bowl cut addressed the second-years and up that were in the tennis club. "Get the freshmen to relax, k? Until the buchou arrives, you are free to use the courts."

As most of the people on the courts scattered, Fuji spoke up. "How about a friendly game?" he asked with his perpetual serene smile.

If Akira didn't know better, and she did because of the customary spell check (A/N: Haha get it? Spell check? You know, like diagnostic spells? Not the program in Word? Hehe… I think I've been brain-wracking for this chapter too long…), she would have thought he was on something.

She watched the regulars absentmindedly as the dude with the bowl-cut went on one side of the net with a basket of tennis balls and the other stood on the other side.

Bowl-cut lazily served one of the tennis balls to the other side of the net, only for Kikumaru to quickly hit it back, right into the basket.

She tilted her head slightly, watching as Fuji, and then Inui also lobbed tennis balls straight into the basket. Analyzing the way that they were moving, she noticed a few things they could work on. Fuji's steps were a bit slow, and Kikumaru was a bit impatient. Inui seemed to be doing okay, but didn't seem to be hitting as hard.

Akira was knocked out of her contemplation as Uni-brow started to yell again and exclaim over the regular's talent.

She cocked an ear to listen as the dude with the headband that was chewing Uni-brow out earlier started to speak again.

"Of course our senpai's are great. Don't you get it Monkeyboy?" Arai sneered. "Just because you made some Twist Serves doesn't mean you're anything great. This is no place for a first-year to be butting in!"

"Huh? But that wasn't me!" Uni-brow exclaimed nervously.

"What?" Arai scowled.

'Looks like Ryoma-kun's going to get targeted now.' Akira thought with slight distaste.

Her attention was brought back to the regulars when Bowl-cut hit the tennis ball wrong.

"Oops. That's a bit high." Inui commented as the ball went soaring over their heads and toward Ryoma and Akira on the sidelines.

"The guy who played Momoshiro is over there! See that guy with the cap?" she heard Uni-brow exclaim as the ball zoomed straight toward Ryoma's face.

Akira watched boredly as Ryoma hopped slightly an nonchalantly hit the ball back into the basket. She would have done it herself, but she didn't really want to aggravate her injuries any more than was needed.

There was a silence as everyone processed what they had just seen. Most had surprised expressions on their faces; except, of course, Fuji.

"Eh. Doesn't seem that hard." Ryoma said cockily, resting his racket on his shoulder.

Akira almost rolled her eyes, but managed to contain the urge. She observed as the regulars looked at Ryoma contemplatively. "Always have to bring attention wherever you go, eh Ryoma-kun?" she muttered to her neighbor in a low, teasing voice.

He just smirked at her.

"You punk!" the boy with the headband exclaimed, running toward Ryoma. "I was right all along!" he roughly grabbed Ryoma's shirt collar. "This is no place for a first year to be showing off!"

Akira's eyes narrowed in anger behind her bangs, before she grabbed Headband-boy's arm in an iron grip.

"I don't think you want to threaten Ryoma-kun." she murmured. "This is no place for a second-year to be bullying those younger than himself." she threw his phrasing back at him. "Besides," she continued in a deceptively pleasant voice, even as she ripped his arm away from her neighbor and yanked him down to eye level, "I'm not quite sure that if you continue, I'd be able to hold myself back from breaking something… relatively important." she finished, peering at him through her bangs with a pleasant smile on her face.

"What is the meaning of this on the courts?" a voice asked from the entrance to the tennis area.

Akira turned, unsurprised, but keeping Arai in the same uncomfortable hunched-over position.

The speaker was a relatively tall teenager, with oval-shaped glasses, and tawny brown hair. He was wearing one of the Seigaku jerseys that were reserved for regulars and coaches.

"Ca-Captain!" all of the non-regulars exclaimed; except for Akira and Ryoma.

"The three of you there. Ten laps around the court for causing a commotion." he stated in a no-nonsense tone.

"Ah! Wa-wait! It's because of-" Headband-boy was cut off from his excuses by Captain.

"Twenty laps!" he barked.

"Ye-yes!" Arai exclaimed.

Captain gave Arai one last stern look, before addressing the rest of the tennis players. "Everyone, start warming up! Starting with those who finish, the third and second years will go to the courts! First years be ready to pick up balls! That's all for today!"

Ryoma adjusted his cap, and was about to start his laps, when Akira tapped him on the shoulder.

"Are you hurt?" she asked patiently.

He grunted a negative, and she peered at him closely.

"Perhaps, you should not act so cocky? It only invites trouble." when Ryoma just gave her an unimpressed look, she continued slyly, "and maybe a few fan girls who are attracted to the bad-boy type."

Satisfied with the slightly unnerved look that garnered from her little friend, she was about to follow him to their laps, when she heard Headband-boy muttering behind her.

"Those punks… I'll get them for this…" he snarled to himself.

Akira heard him, however, and gave a small gesture over her shoulder, sending a mild Balance Hex toward the second-year; it would be enough to make him klutzy for the rest of the day.

'I'll be ready for whatever nasty trick you think to play.' she thought wickedly.


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: So, here's the next chapter. I tried to update it as quickly as possible, but I lost inspiration about three-fourths of the way through the chapter, hehe. At least it was still faster than the last update, right? I hope you all enjoy reading this next segment of my story!

A/N 2: As you may or may not have noticed, I edited a few things in this chapter. Not big changes, just fixing a few mistakes I made and embellishing a bit. I've been reading Prince of Tennis fanfiction lately, so hopefully I'll have enough inspiration steam to finish the next chapter you all have been waiting for! (11-23-10)

Disclaimer: I obviously do not own either Harry Potter nor Prince of Tennis. Otherwise there would be some major canon changes.

Enjoy.

* * *

Moving Forward Ch 9

* * *

The next morning before school, Akira and Ryoma were walking toward the tennis courts together - ready for morning practice the tennis club regularly participated in.

Akira watched with a bit of amusement as Ryoma yawned yet again.

"Perhaps you should set your alarm to go off a bit earlier, Ryoma-kun?" she said with a small smirk. "You've been yawning the entire walk to school."

Ryoma just shrugged at his neighbor, before turning and walking toward the boys' changing rooms. Akira, who had already changed into her tennis clothing, looked around in boredom. Seeing nothing to do, she retreated to a nearby bench and set down her tennis bag.

Walking to an unoccupied corner of one of the tennis courts, she began to do her stretches. After a few minutes, her mind began to wander.

'I really do need to find a good bookstore…' she thought as she moved her legs into a split. 'I suppose I could check the Seigaku library, but they probably don't have any good fiction.'

As she leaned over to touch her bandaged right hand to her left foot, her head snapped over to the door to the boys' changing room, only to see Arai glaring at her little friend. A blank expression made its way onto her face as she watched him pass through the doorway to the changing room. She forgot to rise out of her stretch, and a few people began to stare at the ease with which she held the uncomfortable-looking position.

She slowly reached out to her right foot with her left arm, ignoring the slight panging of her injured shoulder. Akira's eyes narrowed slightly as Arai and his hangers-on exited the changing rooms with smug looks on their faces. Unconsciously using Legilimency on Headband-boy, she scanned his surface emotions, only to find he was scheming something decidedly petty and malicious; but she probably could have figured that out from body language alone.

Akira straightened up from her bent over position and stood up to walk back toward her tennis bag. Unzipping the bag slightly, she subtly sent a few protective charms toward her rackets that would keep them from breaking. With some assurance that she wouldn't have to buy new equipment if Arai and his buddies accomplished whatever foolishness they were planning, she strode over to join her neighbor in the exercises that had been assigned to the first-years.

She carefully kept the slight disdain from her face as Uni-brow started to complain about the 'tough' practice session. They weren't even done yet and he had collapsed onto the ground, sweating like a pig. Sure, most of the other first-years were doing the same, but at least they weren't complaining.

So much for his 'two years' of tennis experience.

"There's still more after this." Ryoma stated nonchalantly as he wiped a small bead of sweat from his forehead.

"Next was practicing your swing motions five hundred times? This is too much! We haven't even made the team yet!" Uni-brow complained.

"And yet you're complaining about such a light load compared to theirs…" Akira muttered to herself as most of the freshmen tried to catch their breath.

Ryoma heard her and smirked slightly, before they both moved away to collect their rackets.

Akira walked over to where she had left her tennis bag, only to find it gone. 'What the…? I'm positive that I put it there…' Her head snapped up, and there was a blank expression on her face as she stared at Arai and his goons. 'I think perhaps I'll murder him… Especially if he did something to Ryoma's stuff. He doesn't have protective charms on his rackets like I do.'

When Ryoma walked back empty-handed, an eerie, annoyed smile worked its way to her face. She vaguely heard Uni-brow ask Ryoma if he had forgotten to bring his racket to practice. Her expression twisted even more as Arai came up to them.

"You two have got guts to not bring your rackets to practice!" Headband-boy sneered. "Trying to slack off on practice because Buchou and the fuku-buchou (A/N: Captain and co-captain for those who don't know.) aren't here yet? Or do you just think that you're so great that you don't need basic training like the rest of us?"

His goons chuckled brainlessly to his 'witty' comments.

"If you're so confident, why don't you two play a doubles match against me and…" Arai turned to scan his two hangers-on. "Ikeda."

Akira had the distinct impression of Malfoy sizing up Crabbe and Goyle to decide who would be his second in the midnight duel.

"But since neither of you have brought your rackets…" Arai trailed off meaningfully.

His followers obligingly held up two old, dusty tennis rackets that looked like they were about to fall apart. The rackets were tossed at Akira and Ryoma, who caught them rather than be hit. The other first-years crowded around the two and started to whisper.

"Ah…! Those are those really old rackets from the changing rooms!" one of them exclaimed quietly.

"The strings are loose and the frames are in shambles!" murmured another.

"You can't use those…" hissed a third.

"What's wrong?" Arai spoke up again. "Won't face us? What happened to all your over-confidence?"

Akira glanced around out of the corner of her eyes and noticed that the little confrontation was garnering attention from the rest of the tennis club. Even the regulars that were on the courts at the moment were watching. Eiji was pointing out the scuffle to Inui, while Fuji watched contemplatively, chin in hand, and the scowling boy with the bandana sneered slightly.

"Those rackets fit you perfectly freshmen! Learn from this, and never show-off again, and show respect to your betters!" Arai grinned spitefully. "Who knows? Maybe if that happens, your rackets will show up."

The first-years gathered around them let out cries of shock and indignation. Akira caught Ryoma's catlike eyes narrowing. Her own eyes closed in exasperation and annoyance, and the neighbors turned as one and headed toward the nearest free court.

"There are some who play tricks because they are weak…" Ryoma said, loud enough for Arai and Company to hear.

"What?" Arai scowled. "Are you saying that I hid them?"

Ryoma stopped, and glared slightly, whilst Akira peered over her shoulder at them.

"You're the one who said it." Akira stated calmly. Arai seethed for a moment, but before he could do anything even more stupid, Ryoma spoke up again.

"Hurry up and let's get this over with." Ryoma stated, scuffing his shoe on the court.

Akira walked over to the other side, settling into a comfortable stance, and taking the time to observe their opponents and the faulty racket that she was holding in her left hand.

"Alright then… I'll shut that mouth of yours for good." Arai declared with a glare.

'Snape had a much better glare.' Akira thought indifferently as she glanced around. She saw Fuji watching them with his serenity-oozing smile and squinty eyes, along with Eiji, who looked a bit nervous. Inui was observing them as if they were a science experiment, whilst the scowling boy with the bandana watched with contempt written all over his face.

Tilting her neck from side to side to get a bit more comfortable, she also saw some people watching from the upper windows of the school building that overlooked the tennis courts.

'Including the buchou…' she thought in mild surprise as she spied the familiar oval-shaped glasses and tawny hair.

Turning her attention back to the 'game', she saw that Headband-boy was about to serve.

"I'll crush you both!" he shouted, before serving the ball.

The tennis ball zoomed across the net, and Ryoma was the closest, so he stretched out his racket and hit. The ball gave a pathetic little jump from the faulty racket and wobbled slightly in the air before hitting the net.

Akirta hummed contemplatively. 'The strings aren't taut enough to properly transfer the kinetic energy from the force of Ryoma's arm to the ball. Plus the ball isn't bouncing straight off the racket, its stalling slightly when the strings give a little, and that wrecks his control. So the ball isn't going far enough, and he doesn't have enough control… for now. He needs to find a way to exert the proper amount of force.'

Ryoma seemed to be catching on quickly as well, picking at the strings on his racket slightly.

"Hey what's wrong?" Arai grinned smugly. "Where are those big words you used awhile ago, huh? Let's finish this!" he served the ball again.

He seemed to be mostly aiming at Ryoma, so the ball went in his direction again. This time, however, he hit the ball a bit differently, and the ball went straight over to the other side- only to hit the fence.

There were murmurings from their audience at the odd sound the ball made when it hit the racket, as well as how Ryoma had no hope of control with the old racket.

Akira however noticed the slight smirk on Ryoma's face as he tapped his knuckles against his racket. A small smile crossed her face.

"Hmm… Now I get it."

Arai scowled slightly. "You think you can win like that?" and served yet again, sure that his short opponent was bluffing.

The ball shot at Ryoma again, only for his to twist slightly, and hit the balll, putting his whole body into the motion this time. The ball hit the ground next to Arai's feet and bounced innocently as everyone stared in shock.

Akira smirked slightly as she heard exclamations of surprise and amazement from the people on the sidelines of the court. 'Have to make waves, eh Ryoma?' she though to herself.

"Hmph! Don't get cocky just because you made it once!" Arai shouted, though Akira noticed a note of desperation in his voice.

The ball was served again, only for Ryoma to swiftly hit it back again in the exact same manner. The game continued on for a few rallies in the same manner, and Arai was starting to get a bit desperate.

"Ha! I think you forgot that this is a doubles match! I bet your little friend can't hit it back like that!" Arai yelled.

The ball zoomed over toward Akira, who had been daydreaming after losing interest in the game. She blink in surprise as she found the ball coming toward her, and lifted her racket… only to turn it to the side and hit the ball with the rim. The ball hurtled to the other side of the next and hit Ikeda (The dude Arai picked to play doubles with - who was also not paying attention) in the kneecap.

Ikeda let out an embarrassingly girly shriek, before curling in on himself slightly and holding his knee.

Akira blinked as a stunned silence filled the courts. "Oh." she said. "Sorry. I wasn't paying attention. Did I hit that too hard for you?" she asked as she tilted her head to the side.

Arai's face contorted in disbelief and anger. "Get up man! Don't be such a wuss!" he yelled.

Ikeda's face colored slightly with anger. "You weren't the one who got hit with it, jerk!"

After that, the balls were hit evenly between Ryoma and Akira, both being targets for their second-year opponents' anger. However, Arai looked like he was about to have a psychological breakdown in the middle of the game.

An extra tennis ball slipped out of Ikeda's pocket, making Ryoma smirk slightly.

"I think that ball is in the way." He said nonchalantly, before effortlessly hitting the incoming ball into the other one, even with the defective racket.

Arai fell to his knees in exhaustion and disbelief, while Ikeda plain went on all fours so he could hold himself up with his arms.

"I think that it's about time to stop warming up, don't you Akira?" he said cockily.

"I suppose Ryoma-kun. This is getting a little bit boring." Akira said mildly as she held the broken-down racket she was currently using behind her back, under her arms.

"Let's finish this then… senpai." Ryoma tagged on the end bit with barely hidden sarcasm.

"Hahaha…" Headband-boy laughed nervously. "Hey, why don't we just call it a break?"

"No." said Ryoma.

"After all," Akira started. "Our rackets haven't reappeared yet." she finished with a sweet smile.

The game continued in the same fashion, and the second-years were doing even worse than before because of their little breakdown. The game was soon interrupted, however, by the boy with the black bowl-cut.

Bowl-cut called everyone to attention with a sharp whistle. "Alright everyone. Tezuka-buchou wasn't very pleased to see you conducting yourselves this way! Everyone is to run laps around the courts as punishment! And Arai!" when he saw that he had the humiliated second-year's attention, he continued, "Make sure you give them back their rackets, eh?"

'Ah. So that's the buchou's name. Tezuka.' Akira thought.

"Nyaa! Even us Oishi?" Eiji exclaimed in surprise.

"Yes, including you." 'Oishi' said patiently. "As regulars of tennis team, you should have acted more responsibly, so get to those laps." he said, looking over the three in front of him.

It was then that Akira noticed that the scowling boy with the bandana was gone. 'Not interested in seeing a couple of second-years humiliated, ka?' she thought absentmindedly as she started to run.

She was brought from her musing by a call of "Midori-chan!" from behind her. She turned her head to see Eiji jogging up to her position, with Fuji a couple of steps behind him.

"Fuji-senpai. Neko-chan." she greeted them evenly once they fell in step with her.

"You played very well Midori-chan, nyaa!" Eiji told her exuberantly, also beaming when she called him the nickname she had made up. "I didn't know you could play like that!"

She blinked in surprise at his enthusiasm for a moment before replying. "Thank you Neko-chan."

"Yes, you did play well." Fuji agreed. "Especially considering your shoulder's condition and the fact that you weren't playing with your dominate hand."

"What!" Eiji yelled. He quieted slightly when heads turned in their direction, but still continues speaking. "Your shoulder is hurt, Midori-chan? Are you okay? Does it hurt?"

Akira's eyes widened slightly in surprise at his worry, but answered him anyway. "My shoulder has a cut on it, but I'm fine. It doesn't hurt badly enough to make me stop playing tennis."

"Wow, you're really dedicated to the sport, ne?" Eiji said, once it was determined that she was not going to wither to the ground in pain any time soon. "And you played really well even with your shoulder being hurt, nyaa! But how come you didn't play with your right hand? Fujiko said it was the one you usually use, right?"

"Ah. Well, yesterday, before Chemistry class, one of Inui-senpai's experiments exploded." she ignored the wide eyes of Eiji and the shocked expression on Fuji's face. "I accidentally cut my hand on one of the pieces of glass when I helped clean up the classroom."

The two upperclassmen stared at her dumbfounded for a moment, before Fuji broke the silence as they continued to jog their laps.

"Is your hand hurt badly?" he asked with a bit of concern.

Akira blinked at him, before shaking her head as they turned a corner. "It's pretty shallow. It just stings a bit, and I'm actually ambidextrous, so it doesn't really effect me much." she said casually.

"Did you get it bandaged properly?" Eiji asked worriedly. "It must have been hard with only one hand to use, nyaa!"

Akira shook her head slightly, "Inui-senpai helped me with it. See?" she held up her right hand for their inspection. A meticulously arranged bandage looked back at them.

Fuji gave a serene smile as his cat-inclined friend gaped at her hand. "It seems you made a good impression with Inui then, Akira-san. I thought you two might get along well."

Akira gave a somewhat creepy smile, startling Fuji and Eiji, who had only ever seen her polite side. "Yes, we had a very interesting discussion about his experiments…" she said contemplatively, "Very interesting…."

Eiji shuddered theatrically, of which Akira took no notice, and Fuji simply kept up his smile. There was a short silence between the three.

This time, however, it was Eiji who broke the silence. "Ne, Midori-chan, do you usually play doubles?" he asked curiously.

Akira, who was starting to become a bit more comfortable in their presence, wrinkled her brow slightly. "Not really." she said. "I don't usually have anyone to play with, unless I go to the street courts, and then I wouldn't have a doubles partner." She bit her lip slightly. "Of course, I have played doubles with Ryoma-kun as my partner, but we only met a couple of months ago."

Eiji nodded, surprisingly thoughtful considering his usual demeanor, before switching back to his hyper attitude. "I play doubles with Oishi! We're going to be the best doubles pair in Japan someday!" he said proudly.

Akira felt a small smile spread across her face, and a warm feeling centered in her chest. It was nice to see someone so enthusiastic and determined about something like that. She and her friends had grown up too quickly because of the war, and their only ambitions had been to make it out alive. Most of them hadn't.

Giving herself a mental shake to keep the more morbid thoughts at bay, she turned to the catlike boy and said, "I'm sure you'll make it one day. You seem determined enough to do it if you work hard enough."

Eiji beamed at her. Fuji however, gave her a strange look, like he couldn't quite figure her out. Did she make a funny expression when her thoughts took a turn toward her first life? She wouldn't know, because she had been alone since the war ended, and she didn't exactly look in a mirror when reminiscing.

Soon enough, they had finished their laps around the courts, and were waiting for the Captain to say what was next on the tennis club's agenda for morning practice.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Sorry for taking so long with this new chapter. I guess I just ran out of inspiration. However, thanks to the efforts of other authors writing Prince of Tennis fan fiction, I once again had enough ideas in my brain to finish this chapter. I hope you enjoy the newest installment.

Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis, nor Harry Potter.

* * *

Moving Forward ch 10

* * *

Morning practice went by smoothly after the whole Arai event. Akira was currently pondering something as she walked to her Psychology class.

During the morning practice, she had seen a couple of adults. She had scanned their minds to see the reason they were watching the tennis practice. They were reporters. She had nearly cringed away, fueled by her instincts, but had dug a little deeper.

Apparently they were assigned to document the regional middle schools' tennis clubs. They weren't bad people, except for their professions; the younger woman might be a little eager an inexperienced, but the older one was pretty knowledgeable and even played a little tennis himself. He would be able to keep the younger, and more importantly, nosier one out of trouble.

But they weren't what she was thinking about. No, what she was currently musing upon was something her ears had caught the reporters talking about.

She had forgotten that first years weren't allowed to try out to be regulars until the summer camp. They weren't allowed into the ranking tournament until then. Part of her was a little glad that she wouldn't have to decide whether or not to try for a regular position - and thus some amount of media attention - until later; the other, larger part of her mind was sure that something out of the ordinary was going to happen - probably because of Ryoma.

Akira shook her head, deciding not to bother herself with that train of though anymore.

She walked calmly into the Psychology classroom, once again empty because of her tendency to come early to all of her classes. She settled into the seat she had taken for the past two days, and just as she had yesterday, pulled out her Chemistry textbook to read.

'That's it.' she thought to herself as her skimmed over the pages. 'I'm going to check the library at lunchtime to see if they have anything good to read.'

This time, there was no conversation to be had with Fuji, as he came into the class just before the sensei. The class went by without incident, the work just simply reading a chapter of their textbooks and some homework assigned at the end.

When the bell rang, signifying lunchtime, the classroom emptied in a hurry. Akira took her time, and was wondering where exactly the library was, when her thoughts were interrupted by her class partner.

"Kitamori-kun, would you like to join Eiji-kun and me for lunch again?" Fuji asked with his slight smile.

Akira, slightly surprised, turned to the 'tensai'. Sure, she had gone to lunch with him the day before, and he had been perfectly friendly. She was still a little surprised that he was. Why was he so interested in her? There was the fact that they were partners in class, but she wasn't that intriguing, was she? Did he actually want to be friends?

"Actually Fuji-sempai, I was going to try to find the library this lunchtime." she said bemusedly. "Thanks for the offer though." she added out of politeness.

"Ah, is that why you were reading that Chemistry textbook yesterday?" Fuji asked curiously. "You didn't have anything else to read?"

"Mostly, yeah." she deadpanned. "I do, of course enjoy the subject as well."

Fuji's smile stretched a little wider. "Would you like my help in finding the library? This is only your third day here, after all."

Akira, having no real reason to refuse, took him up on his offer. "What about Neko-chan?" she asked him. "Is he waiting for you somewhere like yesterday?"

"How considerate of you Kitamori-kun." Fuji replied. "But he particularly asked if we could have lunch together again today. I don't think he'd mind me helping you find the library. After all, the sooner you find it, the sooner we can eat." he said serenely.

Akira didn't remember agreeing to have lunch with them, but didn't bother pointing it out. Yesterday wasn't that disagreeable, except for the glomping she had gotten from Eiji. So she hoisted her bag onto her right shoulder and followed the physically older boy out of the classroom.

With Fuji leading the way, they walked to the library, which thankfully wasn't very far and they were able to stop at her locker on the way. She stuffed her lunch into her book bag and continued following Fuji.

Akira's green eyes roved over the bookcases. She had no idea where to start. She only had a vague idea of what she wanted to read.

"Do you have any recommendations for me Fuji-sempai?" she asked quietly in the silence of the library, sure not to arouse the wrath of the middle-aged librarian who was watching them out of the corner of her eye.

"What exactly are you looking for?" Fuji asked thoughtfully. This was actually useful for him, as he would be able to figure out what kind of books his new interest read. Kitamori wasn't very forthcoming with personal information so far.

"Something thrilling." Akira mused, oblivious to what the boy next to her was thinking. "Maybe a mystery with a little fantasy mixed in…" She always enjoyed reading the things normal people came up with about magical things.

Fuji held his chin in his hand for a moment, which seemed to be a habitual thinking pose of his, and walked to a nearby bookshelf and plucked a relatively thick volume from the row.

"Try this one." he suggested. "It's only the first in the series, so if you do happen to like it, there are more in line."

Akira flipped the book over, reading the small paragraph summarizing the book's contents on the back cover. With a shrug, she walked over to the librarian's desk and got the book checked out.

"Thanks for your help, Fuji-sempai." she said absently, but sincerely as she flipped open the book to the first page and promptly got absorbed in the words.

* * *

Fuji was amused at how quickly the boy could immerse himself in the book, but replied in kind. He then started to walk to where Eiji was waiting, checking his peripheral vision to see if the black-haired boy was following him. Apparently the boy was adept at walking and reading simultaneously, because he seemed to instinctively shift to avoid any obstacles. Yet another intriguing thing about his new interest.

"Kitamori-kun, you might want to put that away now. We're going up a flight of stairs." Fuji stated as he stopped moving and looked back at his underclassman.

Akira blinked owlishly for a moment before looking up at him and then stuffing the book in his shoulder bag. Fuji once again turned forward and walked up the stairs with the smaller boy following.

Almost as soon as they stepped through the door to the roof area, Kitamori was tackled in to a suffocating hug by Eiji, who was thoughtful enough to not jostle the smaller boy's left shoulder. He was even more excited than usual because the Ranking Tournament would be taking place that day.

Fuji watched with amused eyes and his tranquil smile as Eiji pulled the green-eyed boy down to sit next to him and started to chatter.

He studied the boy again as he pulled out his lunch and started to eat while halfheartedly listening to the catlike redhead's prattle. The green-eyed boy was shorter than most, though taller than his somewhat bratty friend, Echizen was it? He was cute as well, in a feminine sort of way, though Fuji couldn't talk about that really.

Fuji had also noticed some nasty scars lacing his arms yesterday, when Akira had been wearing a sleeveless shirt. He was also pleasingly skilled at tennis from what Fuji had seen of the display yesterday. He seemed to like reading, or perhaps he just hated being bored. He didn't seem very social though - seeming to stay out of most conversation and apart from gatherings of his classmates.

Akira also seemed to have a very high pain tolerance, which could be linked to the scarring. He had brushed off having his injured shoulder smashed into a locker like it was some minor irritant. This new interest would keep Fuji from boredom for a while it seemed.

* * *

Akira leaned back against the roof wall as she stretched her legs out leisurely, taking a break from eating the lunch set beside her. She easily ignored the piercing stare she was getting from Fuji. She wondered if he finished figuring her out yet.

"I don't get how you can like wasabi, Midori-chan!" she heard Eiji exclaim. "You and Fujiko must be the only ones I know who actually like it."

"You must not know very many people then, Neko-chan." Akira commented bluntly. Somehow, hanging around these two made her more talkative than usual. Maybe it was just because they were the first friendly contact she had experienced for about three years, aside from the Echizen family and Yuuta. Whatever it was, it was kind of nice, and even if they weren't friends, at least they saved her from having to find something to do at lunchtime.

Eiji pouted at her comment, before regaining his boisterous spirit and continuing to talk. "Why don't you guys like nice foods? Like… fruit? Fruit is nice! Except for the really sour ones like lemons and limes…" Eiji trailed off as he wrinkled his nose.

"I do happen to like fruit Eiji-kun." Fuji stated. "Apples are some of my favorite foods."

"Oh yeah." Eiji perked up slightly, remembering that tidbit of information about his friend. "What kind of fruit do you like, Midori-chan?" he asked his newest friend, Fuji listening interestedly.

"Oranges." Akira answered immediately, snatching some slices of said fruit from her lunchbox.

"Yeah, oranges are good too. I like strawberries the best." Eiji continued on. "They're good with whipped cream on top."

Soon, however, their chatting (mostly Eiji's) came to an end as the school bell rang, indicating it was ten minutes until their next class.

Akira hurriedly stuffed her lunchbox into her bag, before slinging it around her right shoulder once more.

"Thanks for keeping me company at lunch, sempai." she said politely as she stood. "Chemistry is on the other side of the building though, so I'd like to get going."

Eiji pouted somewhat, before aiming a good-natured smile at her along with Fuji. "See you at tennis practice then!" he said excitedly. "The Ranking Tournament starts today!"

Akira nodded, before quickly walking through the roof door and down the steps.

She arrived at Chemistry about five minutes before the bell would ring, having stopped at her locker to put her lunchbox back. Inui was already there, though this time he was not experimenting with some concoction. Instead, he was scribbling notes - perhaps on the performances of all the freshman tennis club members that had started yesterday.

She actually couldn't know for sure. Somehow, the thick lenses that he wore blocked out any minor attempts at Legillimency, and if she used more power and did get through, she could damage his brain, so she just didn't try.

Akira greeted her Chemistry partner politely, and after he replied in turn, she sat next to him and pulled out her new library book. She heard him flip a few pages in his notebook and mutter something about data, but paid it no mind.

Chemistry went smoothly as well, Maruko-sensei was very strict, so there was no misbehavior that would cause any commotion. She had an interesting conversation with Inui about their assignment, but other than that, nothing happened.

"I'll see you at tennis practice, Inui-sempai." Akira said as they finished cleaning up their work station.

"Yes. I will see you at the Ranking Tournament, Kitamori-san." Inui said as a light sheen covered his glasses.

'Guess the Ranking Tournament is a big thing, even for the regulars.' Akira thought to herself as she walked to her next class.

Well, she'd find out just what it was like after school.

Akira met Ryoma outside the boys' locker room when he was done changing, and they both walked at a reserved pace to see who the competitors in the Ranking Tournament were.

Akira's quick eyes soon found a familiar name, and a smirk crossed her face. "Looks like you're going to make even more waves, Ryoma-kun." she said as she pointed to his name where it was listed on the Block D board. She scanned his opponents, but the only other name that she knew was his fifth match, where he was up against Inui Sadaharu.

'He's going up against Inui-sempai, huh? That'll be interesting to watch.' she mused. Her thoughts were interrupted by a tap on her shoulder.

She turned to see Ryoma pointing to a name in Block B. She squinted at it, only to have her eyes widen in surprise as she read 'Kitamori Akira, year 1'

"Why was I listed?" she asked herself.

"Because you're good." Ryoma said as if it were obvious.

Akira raised an eyebrow at him. "It's not like I've shown much skill at Seigaku, Ryoma-kun. Even if I am good, how would they know it?"

Ryoma shrugged. "Does it matter?"

Akira thought for a moment, before deciding that it didn't really. Instead of worrying about it further, she turned to see who she would be up against. Once again, however, she only recognized one other name. Her first match would be against one Momoshiro Takeshi.

She followed Ryoma absently as he walked toward the registration.

'That Momoshiro's ankle must still be a little sore, so I'll have an advantage there. I kind of regret not staying to watch him play Ryoma, but then again, if I had, I wouldn't have met Yuuta. Anyway, from what I saw when Momoshiro dented that can, he must focus a lot on strength.' were the things going through her mind. However, her train of thought was knocked of the rails by a familiar and irritating voice.

"Echizen wouldn't stand a chance against the seniors!" the Unibrow boy stated smugly, his arms resting carelessly behind his head.

The other two boys with him frowned slightly.

"But I'm still going to cheer for Ryoma-kun." one of them said firmly. "All the freshmen will be counting on him."

The other one nodded in agreement, before turning his head and seeing Ryoma and Akira walking toward them.

"Ah, Ryoma-kun! We'll be cheering for you! We're counting on you to win against the regulars!" the two boys told him optimistically.

Ryoma didn't even bother opening his eyes, which made Akira roll hers. The golden-eyed boy would have continued walking onward, if they hadn't been stopped by a hissing noise.

"_Stop eating my fluffy unicorns."_

Akira nearly choked on her spit trying to keep herself from laughing as the source of the hissing was revealed to be the bandana-wearing second-year from yesterday. The semi-intimidating face really did not fit with what she had heard in Parseltongue.

Apparently, he had no idea what he was saying in snake-language.

"Hey freshmen." she heard him say lowly, after she managed to stop laughing mentally.

"Hai!" the three boys who had been talking aimlessly answered, their postures straightening automatically at being addressed by an upperclassman.

"Stop slacking off." he ordered as he changed positions where he was sitting.

He turned abruptly to face them with a fierce expression. "Now go!"

"Yes, sir! Excuse us!" the three squeaked, running of somewhere where there weren't any hissing, bandana-wearing sempai.

Ryoma, who was as contrary as a cat, decided to stand his ground, his racket still tucked comfortably under his arm, and one hand in his pocket. Akira just decided to stay with her neighbor.

Fluffy-Unicorn Boy turned his glaring scowl upon Ryoma and Akira.

"Hey."

"Yeah?" Ryoma answered him nonchalantly.

"Hm?" Akira answered as well.

There was a long silence, where Fluffy-Unicorn Boy's glare only intensified. Ryoma just stared right back with his usual cockiness, and Akira with blank boredom.

"Aren't you two freshmen?" Fluffy-Unicorn Boy said, more as a statement then a question. Akira supposed he was referring to his earlier order about not slacking off.

"Yes." Ryoma said, before turning his back on the sitting sempai. "I'm leaving now."

Akira tilted her head to stare at the bandana-wearing boy a while longer, an odd smile crossing her face, before turning to follow Ryoma without a word.

"Ooh, scary…" she heard Ryoma mutter, loud enough for the Fluffy-Unicorn Boy to hear. A smirk spread across her lips at his usual bratty attitude.

They soon caught up to the three freshman boys. Who were sadly panting even though the run was short, though that may have partially been fear.

"That was close." one of the black-haired boys muttered.

"Wasn't that Kaidoh-sempai?" the other one said.

"Yeah" Unibrow answered. "And he's one of Echizen's opponents in the Block D Ranking Tournament!"

Akira barely listened to the rest of their conversation, which consisted of Unibrow boasting about the functions of the Ranking Tournament to his less knowledgeable classmates.

It made her glad that she had her higher-level classes around lunchtime, or she'd be spending it with Ryoma - who probably had those three following him around like lost, not to mention unwanted puppies.

"Hey, shouldn't you three be putting up the nets?" she heard a somewhat stern voice say.

It was Bowl-cut; or rather, Oishi, the guy Eiji played doubles with and the vice-captain of the tennis club.

The three yelled their affirmative and ran away to do as they were told.

Akira shook her head slightly at their hero-worship of older students, before quickening her steps to catch up with Ryoma.

A few seconds later, she fell in step with him, and as they turned a corner, she saw a semi-familiar girl making inexperienced practice-swings with a tennis racket.

'That's Ryuuzaki's granddaughter, hm?'Akira thought absently as they went to pass her.

Ryoma however, seemed to feel like helping her out, a very odd thing for him.

He tapped the back of her knee with his racket s he passed by, making her gasp in shock.

"Ryoma-kun!"

He passed by without replying, holding his racket out above his head.

"You bend your knees too much… Don't flip your wrist like that… You opened your shoulders too wide… and your hair is too long." he listed offhandedly over his shoulder. "You should cut it."

She heard a small groan of disappointment from the girl behind them. Once they were a bit further ahead, she took the opportunity to tease Ryoma.

"You must like her, Ryoma-kun, if you helped her out like that." she said with a mocking smile. "You even told her how long you like hair on girls."

"Tch." Ryoma turned his head away in annoyance. "Maybe it was just painful to watch anyone swing a racket that badly."

Akira nodded sagely. "Denial is the first step." she said, and would have continued, if she hadn't heard a horrible thing coming up behind them.

Girly, excited squealing.

"Hurry, hurry! The Ranking Tournament is starting soon!"

"And those freshmen are playing, right!"

Her face immediately went blank. "I'm heading over to Block B now Ryoma-kun."

She could almost see the smirk on her neighbor's face. Sure, he found fan girls irritating, but he was always amused at her reaction to them.

"I hope you can concentrate properly on your match when that girl you like comes to watch you." she tossed over her shoulder.

She heard another 'Tch' of annoyance, and a small, victorious grin crossed her lips.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Hey guys… Sorry for the really, really long wait… This story has been giving me a really hard time, unfortunately. I hope you enjoy this chapter, though it is a bit shorter than the others. Thanks for reading, and thank you for your patience. (though some of you haven't been patient at all - I take it as a compliment that you enjoy my story enough to badger me about updating it.)

* * *

Moving Forward - Chapter Eleven

* * *

After wishing Ryoma luck, and giving the reporters hanging around Block D a wide berth, Akira quickly walked toward where her own Ranking Matches would be held.

Akira's calm face surveyed Court B as she walked around the chain link fence toward the entrance. Momoshiro was already inside, chatting amiably with a couple of girls on the other side of the fence. With an exhale of air from her lungs, she quietly walked inside, setting down her tennis bag on a nearby bench. She walked a few feet away, and began to warm herself up, all the while examining her first opponent.

She was correct in thinking that the hurt ankle was still affecting the second-year. It was subtle, but he was leaning slightly more on the ankle that had never been injured. Of course, that merely evened things up because of Akira's own shoulder injury, but perhaps he wouldn't notice it. And when your opponent doesn't know of your weakness even when it's there, it's almost as good as not having a handicap in the first place. As such, she had the advantage for now, because she had the knowledge of Momshiro's own weakness.

She also examined his physique, noting that she was also probably correct in thinking that Momshiro focused more on strength. His build suggested the exercises that he most used were for strength-training, and the well-defined muscles of his limbs suggested that he had done the exercises diligently. She couldn't get much more than that without playing him first. Again, the thought crossed her mind that she wished she would have stayed to watch him play against Ryoma; but then again, that would have resulted in her never meeting Yuuta, so she supposed she got the better end of the deal anyway. She'd just have to wing it - god knows she had done that enough during the war, what with the ambush tactics of the Death Eaters.

Done with her small warm-up and analyzing session, Akira plopped herself down next to the bench with her tennis bag, and withdrew the novel that Fuji had recommended to her the day before. No use in boring herself to death while waiting for the match to begin.

After reading a few chapters, she heard footsteps near the fence's gate, and looked up from the words on the pages to see a boy who hadn't made it into the tournament walking toward the referee's chair. She promptly placed a bookmark in the crevice of the open pages, and stuffed the book back into her bag. Grabbing her favorite tennis racket, she walked toward the net.

She stood in a relaxed pose, waiting for Momoshiro to come over and start the game. As soon as he turned around, he flinched back in shock at the sight of her, an odd expression on his face. Obviously, he hadn't bothered to see who his first opponent would be.

"Hey… you're that guy who was with Echizen, right?" he asked rhetorically, curiosity glinting in his eyes. "What a coincidence that we're going to be opponents…" he said. "But didn't you say you were a freshman?"

"Apparently, someone thought I was good enough to be included in the Ranking Tournament." Akira stated passively. "Shall we begin?"

Momoshiro looked like he wanted to ask something else, but he nodded anyway, and a hint of eagerness crossed his face. He placed the tip of his racket on the ground, preparing to spin it. "Rough or Smooth?" he asked.

"Smooth."

And with a spin of the racket, the game began.

* * *

Inui watched with a calculative eye as a shell-shocked Momoshiro walked toward him to register the results of his match. He couldn't help but be interested in the other tennis player's reaction - especially considering his opponent had been Inui's new, somewhat intriguing, Chemistry partner. Momo was usually a boisterous, jovial person, so what could have happened to make him this subdued?

"0-6." Momo mumbled to the data-fanatic, staring in a preoccupied manner at his tennis shoes.

Inui's eyes widened in shock behind his opaque glasses' lenses. Momo had lost that badly? While Momo wasn't good enough to beat Inui himself, he was a regular - and that meant that he was definitely an above-average player. For Kitamori Akira to have beaten him so badly, not even allowing for a point against 'him'… the first year must be some kind of tennis-monster.

Though Inui wanted to needle his fellow regular for details on the match, even he - with his thirst for data sometimes clouding his judgment of social standards - could see that his questions would not be appreciated at the moment. So instead, he quietly scribbled down the score, and immediately reached for his data book to log this new information on his newest classmate.

As Momo walked away, Inui noticed that Akira was in the vicinity, watching 'his' defeated opponent and making sure he had left before approaching Inui's table.

"The score for my match was 6-0, Inui-senpai." the shorter 'boy' stated softly.

Inui, who had already written said score down in the correct box, decided to needle the less upset person for information instead. "That's a quite impressive score, Kitamori-san." he stated. "Momoshiro is one of the Seigaku regulars, so it's surprising that your win was so overwhelming ."

Much to his surprise, his underclassman seemed to shy away from the compliments to 'his' skills. "Momoshiro-senpai was playing with an injured ankle." Akira muttered, trying to deflect his attention from the sheer skill that was actually needed to deliver such a crushing defeat to Momoshiro - regardless of a small handicap.

Inui's glasses glinted, sensing a weakness in 'his' argument. "Yes, Kitamori-san, but that injury was old, and nearly healed. From what I recall, you have an injured hand - and judging from your movements the other day, I can make an educated guess that your other arm is not at 100% either." he finished, slightly curious as to why 'he' seemed to dislike the attention directed at 'him'. Wasn't the usual reaction of a teenaged boy to be pleased with ego-stroking comments?

Much to his surprise, the younger 'boy' flushed slightly, mumbling a vague excuse, and walked quickly away. Inui scribbled down his observations on the brief encounter. This was highly out of the ordinary behavior, and thus, interesting to him.

* * *

Akira's thoughts were in a whirl as she escaped from her upperclassman's probing statements. 'Nice job, idiot.' she scolded herself. 'He was only that interested because you just couldn't hold back a little. Now other people - besides Inui-sempai - are going to start paying more attention to you, too.'

Still, even though she was upset, she knew that it was ultimately pointless to admonish herself for not holding back. During the war, it was necessary to have absolutely no hesitation whatsoever in your movements and decisions - even a hint of something like that could get one killed. The habit of utterly crushing any opposing force was so deeply engrained in her psyche that it was nearly impossible for her to hold back in any genuinely competitive event. The only reason she hadn't utterly crushed Yuuta when they had played before was because there was no pressure on her to win - it was more like a spar than a battle. The Ranking Matches were much more serious, making her subconsciously switch into her battle mindset at the perceived importance of winning.

'Maybe I should just forfeit the other matches, and quit the tennis club.' she mused to herself as she sat down on a bench that was in the shade. 'While I do enjoy playing - really enjoy it - I don't exactly want the attention that comes with winning against a regular - or with the way things are going, _being_ a Seigaku regular. Especially since with Ryoma a shoe-in for the Regulars, they'll probably end up in some highly publicized tournaments.'

A deep sigh echoed in her chest as she stared blankly into the air in front of her. She twisted on the bench, pulling her up her legs to rest on the bench as well. With nothing else to do, and not wanting to end up brooding over the match, Akira pulled her book back out of her book bag, and set to reading it. The thriller novel would be a sufficient distraction from her inner turmoil.

* * *

Ryoma walked up to the table where the creepy, glasses-wearing sempai was sitting, waiting to record the match results. He had just absolutely creamed his second opponent, and was itching to find a vending machine so he could get a Ponta.

"6-0." he stated in a bored voice.

Inui looked distractedly up at him. "Ah, good work Echizen-san." he said in a preoccupied manner, before scribbling down the score and going back to his thoughts.

Ryoma gave him a strange look, but turned to walk away. It was none of his business if the creepy-sempai was having issues. He wanted some Ponta. He was halted in his tracks by a sound of realization, followed by a calling of his name. He reluctantly turned back around, only to find Inui staring at him expectantly.

"Echizen-san, you are classmates with Kitamori Akira, yes?" Inui asked directly.

Ryoma blinked in surprise at the mention of his friend. "Yeah." he answered plainly, slightly curious as to why the creepy-sempai was asking about her.

"Could you please find him and tell him that he needs to attend his next match, or be disqualified from the Ranking Tournament?" Inui asked his underclassman.

Ryoma was even more surprised. "Don't you have to lose two matches to be disqualified?" he asked, disbelieving that a tennis player on par with himself could have already lost two matches. He completely ignored the reference to Akira being of the male persuasion - instead scanning the large scoreboard behind Inui for the scores of her previous matches. The first was a devastating win, while the second just had a large F written in the block.

"Well, yes." Inui confirmed, folding his hands in front of him on the desk. "But Kitamori-san was absent for his last match, and thus forfeited the match. If he misses another one, that counts as both of his losses."

Ryoma raised an eyebrow. During the time he had known his neighbor, Akira had come across as a very steady person. What could have caused her to miss a match?

"I'll look." he told Inui, before walking away.

Akira would probably be somewhere shady, so he'd go to the place nearest the tennis courts with some trees and work his way outward. It might take awhile - enough time so that he would have to go directly to his third match after finding her. She'd better have a good reason for making him miss out on a grape Ponta.

* * *

"Hey."

Akira was startled to be interrupted during the climax of her thriller. She sat up on the bench, and looked up to see Ryoma staring at her with a slightly irritated glint in his catlike eyes.

"You're going to get disqualified if you miss another match." he stated bluntly, narrowing his eyes at her as he watched her reaction to his words.

Akira was surprised. 'Another' match? That implied she had already missed one. She rummaged in her bag for her watch, and nearly groaned at the time. She had definitely forfeited her second match by absence, and she only had about ten minutes to get to her third if she wanted to stay in the Ranking Tournament.

Akira paused, placing her arm over her eyes as she thought hard. Did she really want to stay in the Ranking Tournament? After all, it would be much less troublesome if she stayed far away from competitive, publicized sports, considering she had come to Japan in search of a peaceful life. However, she did love tennis, and if she did get into the Regulars, she definitely have the chance to test her skill against some of the best players in Japan.

"What's wrong with you?" Ryoma interrupted her thoughts almost rudely - it might have offended her (what with good manners having been literally beaten into her at the Dursleys), if not for the slight concern she could detect beneath the brusqueness.

Her lips almost twitched into a smile at his reluctant worry over her. "It's nothing Ryoma-kun. I'm just not sure if I want to do this." she told her young friend.

Ryoma looked at her as if she had just said the dumbest thing he had ever heard - which would be hard to achieve, considering what his father was like sometimes. "Why, you love tennis, don't you?" he asked her frankly.

"Yes." she answered simply. "But I'm not entirely fond of the attention that come with being good at it."

Ryoma, who had been playing against her for months, knew that she was understating her talent for the sport. And that was probably her problem. He knew that she hated reporters for some reason, and that she was somewhat reluctant to be in any kind of spotlight - whether it be good or bad. So if she became a Seigaku Regular, and they got into one of the really big tournaments…

Ryoma sighed in exasperation. And maybe slight fondness at his friend's odd quirk of shyness.

"Idiot." he told her plainly. At her mildly insulted look, he continued. "If you love something, shouldn't you be willing to go out of your comfort zone in order to do it?"

Akira stared at him in utter surprise for a moment. Her surprise eventually melted into a smirk, though her eyes were softened with playful affection. "Who knew Ryoma-kun could be so wise?" she teased him.

Ryoma scoffed at her, told her she owed him a Ponta, and turned to walk to his own match, confident that his friend would get on with what she thought was right. Akira stuffed her book away in her bag and caught up with him. She slung a playful arm around his shoulder, which surprised him a little, considering she wasn't a very physical person - other than ruffling his hair all the time.

"I bet it's only because the subject had something to do with tennis." she told him impishly. You're absolutely hopeless about everything else, you know."

Ryoma scowled, though Akira saw it as a pout. "Go cream your next opponent." he ordered her. "And leave me alone."

Akira chuckled softly at him. "You know what?" she asked rhetorically. "I think I will."

* * *

When she arrived at the tennis court this time, there were more people there than their had been when she played her first match. No doubt her ruthless defeat of a regular, followed by her mysterious disappearance for her second match had caught their attention. She hesitated slightly, before steeling herself, and entering the caged-off area.

Whispers erupted from the spectators, and to anyone else, they would have sounded like a bunch of snakes - but she knew better. She set down her tennis bag on the same bench as she had before, and turned to examine her next opponent.

From what she remembered of the schedule, her third opponent was a second-year named Kawamura. She had remembered because he had the same name as that great sushi shop she had visited. As she examined him head-to-toe, she found that he had almost the same exact build as Momo - focused on power over speed and agility. His personality seemed to be an odd match with that philosophy - he appeared to be almost shy - and definitely quiet; not the usual traits exhibited by power players.

She gave a few deep breaths and began to loosen herself up with her usual stretches. She wanted to go into this with the right mindset - she was doing this because she loved tennis. She was not going to focus on the spectators. Or the potential reporters. With cameras. And inherent nosiness. And the urge to rip apart any reputation they could get their filthy mits on. And ugly crocodile handbags, rhinestone spectacles, and obviously fake blonde hair.

She caught herself before she could panic any further. 'Wait a second, Akira. Deep breaths. You're not in the Wizarding World anymore. You aren't famous. You are voluntarily playing tennis, the sport you love most - not competing in a deadly tournament that you were signed up for in hopes that you would die. And most of all, Rita Skeeter is currently serving time in Azkaban for being an unregistered Animagus - as well as the other various crimes they discovered at her trial.'

She focused firmly on her Occlumency shields, and pushed any anxiety to the back of her mind. There was a moment of pure blankness of emotion, before the void was filled by the usual rush of anticipation, excitement, and joy that came just before a tennis match.

A small smile spread across Akira's face. 'Okay. I can do this.' she thought with a quiet confidence.

Her eyes snapped open, and she picked up her racket once more. She walked calmly toward the net to where her opponent was waiting on the other side.

"ORRA!" he shouted enthusiastically as he gripped his racket, a grin stretching his lips. "Are you ready to start this BURNING match!"

"Yeah." she agreed, slightly startled at his change in personality from what she had observed before. She didn't let it bother her though. She was going into battle, and this was going to be her temporary enemy.

"Rough or Smooth?" he asked with excitement.

"Smooth." she stated unwaveringly.

The racket spun, and the match began.


End file.
